Mental Health Hospital

You don’t know me,

And I don’t know you,

All I know is what’s written in your charts,

And from the whispers in the halls,

Which created the nerves right from the start,

When we began to talk I knew,

That you’re more than words on a page,

You’ve got goals, and dreams, and aspirations,

Serving your time locked away in this cage,

They told me to be careful,

They warned me that you were incapable of change,

Incapable of understanding and leaving this place,

These activities you do,

Are just a way to pass time,

Living within these bedroom cells,

Shouldn’t feel like a crime,

We are more alike than different,

Just one breakdown away from admittance,

You don’t know me,

And I don’t know you,

But I do know that,

Mental illness does not define you.