Two poems
- Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal
- Jul 1, 2019
- 1 min read
Tardive Dyskinesia
She spoke seven languages.
She spoke in tongues.
She spoke in neologisms.
She mumbled her words.
The rolling of her tongue was
more evident
the longer she took all those
psychiatric drugs.
The treatment seemed worse for her
than her symptoms.
Weening her off the medicine
did not stop her tongue
from the rolling and writhing
motions. She was
not the same ever again.
The voices remained.
Her Russian and Italian
words contained words
that did not make any sense
just like the French words.
I could understand her when
she spoke English
and Spanish. She spoke of a
fast train coffin lid.
One Day
Access to toys
that go boom
is a small reminder
that a small soul
one day
could end it all
in a fit of rage,
turn the cold world hot,
tear it all
to pieces
like unwanted mail
in the shredder.
Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, born in Mexico, lives in Southern California, and works in the mental health field in Los Angeles. His first book of poems, Raw Materials, was published by Pygmy Forest Press. His other poetry books, broadsides, and chapbooks, have been published by Alternating Current Press, Deadbeat Press, Kendra Steiner Editions, New American Imagist, New Polish Beat, Poet's Democracy, and Ten Pages Press (e-book).
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