Work hours are over but never work
I want to lie down and stare
Look up at the sky and go live there
Clear my skull in that vast blue light
I’m not drunk but I do feel blotto
People I treat believe
Demand more –
And you’ll get more
You deserve nothing less than
All you wish
If you feel bad
Someone must fix it
Yet medical science not so scientific;
Disorders of mind are ill-defined
Still people are certain answers sit waiting
Why don’t I give them the right one now?
But there’s no drug for the father that rapes you
No sentence that stops you mainlining fentanyl
Few threads stitch the wounds of self-hatred
Waking you each night to mourn your days
No surprise my colleagues quit
Nurses walk off shifts and never return:
You don’t cure the world with a phrase
Or even those magic pills in my pocket
Instead see the war inside minds
Those who are right eternally right
All others sick, evil or damned
Souls are on fire but don’t know they’re burning
For those who demand more
Nothing is ever enough
Use up a planet and it’s all gone
Nature is high, wide, vast, and deep
It’s survived us
Perhaps I’ll learn from her