Ode to Mental Patients

Go, Schizo Steve, rise on stage,
Bang their walls with your clenchèd fists,
And you, Manic Mike with your slashèd wrists,
Make the hospital staff enraged,
Rage, rage, rage against the silent cage!

I can see you with twitches and jerks,
I can see you with muscular twists,
Shaking off your catatonic bliss,
Come and see where your darkness lurks,
Sing a hymn to psychotic breaks!

When the grasshopper dances the jig
And mosquitoes take a bite of my nose,
I can see Hyper Jack with a hose,
Spraying water on his analyst’s wig.
Dance, dance the Dionysian dance!

There sleeps sweet and happy Joe,
Medicated and tied to his bed,
Poor Joe is afraid of the Reds,
Poor Joe is a bit paranoid.
Come, Joe, have a beer on me!

Come you sleepyheads, rise and cheer,
Let the social workers preach,
Let them shout at you and teach,
Let them drown their hang-ups in beer.
Go friends! Lift the curtains of fear!

Let them smile their happy smiles,
Let them dress in their mothers’ garb,
Let them cut the psyches apart,
Let them mock their wounded child.
Rage, rage, rage against the silent cage!

Passion-stricken and hungry for trance,
Sing a song of eternal love,
It’s the message that comes from above,
No medicine can stop this dance!
Bid farewell to your thorazine blues!

Come, Saint Elizabeth, sing on stage,
Lift their walls with your open heart,
They will not take your beauty apart,
Make the hospital staff enraged—
Let them know the real cage!


  July 10, 1987 
--Alexander Shaumyan