An Ode to Two North Psychiatric Unit

(note: I originally wrote this piece years ago, after my first stay in a psych ward in Medford, Oregon, USA, which followed a rough stay in a jail)

This place isn't exactly heaven:
each guest may seem mad or broken
and soon goes home or roaming
usually not exactly fixed

But there's understanding
and safety,
and the cuisine is healthy
delicious, and free

And amid the "lunatics,"
there are beautiful eccentrics
(oft within the same person
or brought out by group interaction) :
humans of unusual compassion,
energy or creativity

Amid the occasionally terrible din,
one can oft hear
mortal angels singing

Oft dressed like butterflies,
they fly their rounds,
dispensing hope and meds,
and gingerly binding broken wings