A Small Home for Characters

Andy Tran

If I’d forfeited my control over my hands,

Then last night I would have built a birdhouse

Out of popsicle sticks, super glue, and a bucket of red paint

Though perhaps I’m...once again, going on a tangent,

Everything now feels so demanding, and I used to be a poet,

A prose writer, I’ve even tried writing scripture

Through sketch comedy writing

And life is exciting, but lately I’ve resided at a hospital

In Falls Church, Va, on the 2nd floor with other friends / patients

Who possess Bipolar 1, and we all take different medications,

Mine for ex: Lithium , abilify, and ativan, and for now these meds

Are working out phenomenally, and is that even the proper word?

My hearing is selective when I see strange women doing pirouettes,

Loud men screaming and raising their fists,

Children crying from night to day, and day to night,

And so if you must know, dear reader, I don’t hate it here;

I merely view this environment, this building, this vehicle

Of capitalism, as a place where I was glad

To stop caring about my responsibilities as a working member in society.

Here, hand me the glue, and then some popsicle sticks,

And let me engorge my body with the red paint;

You are my hands; I am the bird house.

Andy Tran is a writer from Virginia. Follow him on Twitter: @AndyT187.