Childhood delirium
i fall
like a dry leaf
to the floor
anxious beetles watch
i catch them
one by one
wrap them in edible paper
canaries sing in my head
lavender ladies pick me
put me to bed
inject me with pineapple pudding
on the west wing
schizophrenic twins burn their toys
death licks the walls
with burning
burgundy tongue
my father's voice
drifts through the keyhole
i slip into the welcome peace of black
copyright2001 Irene Drennan
IRENE DRENNAN, a transplanted 1950s Greenwich Village artist/poet, moved to Washington state in 1969. Her writing has appeared in Duckabush Journal, Film Writers West, Gray Panthers, N.O.W., Raven Chronicles and other literary magazines. She read with the Seattle Five Plus One poetry workshop for eight years. The poems of this popular group were anthologized into a book by the same name -- The Seattle Five Plus One (Pig Iron Press, 1995).
In the 1940s, when Irene finished high school, she could not decide if she should study psychology or art. She took a job as an attendant in a mental hospital. "I wanted to be sure I was taking the right path. Also, I read a very old book titled Lunatix. I was fascinated. I had to go see for myself. I tried, through writing, to understand what the patients were feeling. But after two years at Buffalo State Hospital, I chose art."
read Irene's poems
