First Day Sober: #1 of Poetry Series

Beginning a daily series where I post a poem a day from my second collection of poems "A Piece of the Breadcrumb Trail". I will take you through the entirety of the book day by day and hopefully will impart some small modicum of beauty and inspiration in your lives as so many other phenomenal people and artists have for me. My effort to contribute to the collective verse that helps us to continue on, rain or shine. I hope you enjoy.

#1

I wake up in the ER waiting
IV hooked up, waiting for the nurse.
Looking around, that harsh white light
Mixing with the smell of bleach
Dizzies my senses.
I lay in the hospital bed waiting for food,
Waiting to pee, waiting for clarity.
Scenes from the night before
Jump out at me like gremlins
Sneering at me as I sit;
Stripped of dignity in the lime green
Hospital gown.
I sit waiting for an answer,
Starring forward looking at the other
Patients thinking that I don’t belong here.
A scene kicks back of me licking my shoes,
Of another catheter as it sucks up
Like toothpaste out of a tube.
I sit waiting here, unable to move without permission,
The security guard deems me a threat and the straps
Are put back on. I sit waiting
Reading magazines from months before.
I wait, sleep, watch and listen until
Finally they transfer me to a psych ward.
I wait for the ambulance,
They strap me in,
Shuttle me out.
I wait as we drive.
Upon arriving at the new hospital
I lay out on the stretcher, strapped in and wrapped up
Like a mummy waiting for admission,
They admit me,
Weigh me,
Draw some blood,
Then I walk over to the day room
Sit and wait until dinner.
Another four days I wait in the psych ward,
Get diagnosed with manic depression
And wait to be discharged.
They discharge me.
I leave, walk to buy cigarettes
Then wait for the train,
The train comes.
I wait in line at Marshalls to buy some new wool socks,
They’re warm on my bare feet.
Then I walk to bored the Megabus,
Wait, and then bored.
Now I sit on the bus
Waiting to smoke to break up
The time I will wait to get home.
I wait to wait
Until evening beckons,
Till sleep overcomes
And I begin to wait
For night time to come again.
…