A patient on Ward 13 South at May Rèves Hospital Center told me
That in the Fall of 2007
Our world was taken hostage by an evil being from another dimension
I nodded
And stared into his exposed stomach
Which quaked in fear of his dissociated mind
Ward 13 South is an adult psychiatric unit
I was given pills of various shapes and sizes
With the presumed intention of adjusting the temperature of my mind
To a state of maximum warmth
When the pills proved ineffective
I turned in a 72 hour letter to the director of the hospital
I was promptly discharged
And it was advised that I have no further contact
With anyone I'd met on the unit
What happens on 13 South stays on 13 South
Through their many failed attempts to adjust the temperature of my mind
The doctors on Ward 13 South proved themselves to be both weak and incompetent
As human beings and medical professionals
And though my mind remains at a steady temperature of 12 degrees Fahrenheit
Far lower than that of the average American
I was often noted for the warm presence I brought
To the otherwise cold and clinical environment of the unit
In the hours leading up to my discharge
I borrowed a No.2 pencil from the nurse's station
And in an empty space on the wall
In the four-bedded room I'd called a home the past ten days
I wrote
"I have reached the other side
And the gra** is no greener
Than from within the confines of your prison
My mind is cold
And I am somebody"
Good evening
I am somebody
Talked to the tourist lost on the bridge
I told him he wasn't that lost
Talked to the man who inherited the world
And I told him he wasn't that rich
He tore up my portrait of Nurse Ratched
And I kicked him in his thigh
And he screamed
And I laughed
Like the wicked
Wicked witch
Talked to the man who was trapped
Within the walls of a prison hidden underground, said
"When your mind is cold
You are somebody"
When your mind is cold
You are somebody
You can be everybody
And I'd like to thank you for having me tonight
'Cause your mind is cold
Will you excuse me?
I'm just trying to find the bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge
Where's that confounded bridge?