The Poetry Corner

The Trip to the Mental Hospital (II)

By Alfred Lichtenstein

A little girl crouches with her little brother Next to an overturned barrel of water. In rags, a beast of a person lies gulping food Like a cigarette butt on the yellow sun. Two skinny goats stand in broad green spaces On pegs, and their ropes sometimes tighten. Invisible behind monstrous trees Unbelievably at peace the huge horror approaches.