Mona’s Medicine

Mona’s medicine keeps her
from thinking she can
write the Bible of the future,
from thinking an Angel of the Lord
has come to earth to tell her how to do it.

Mona’s medicine keeps her
like a man keeps a woman:
in one room, safe, cared for, trapped.

It keeps her from being herself,
only much, much more so.

It keeps her out of the hospital.

It keeps her on the phone to me, whispering,
crying, telling secrets that everyone knows.