She peels the orange
with slow determination.
She puts the orange peel
in the waste basket
she has placed
by the chair.
She breaks up
the sticky segments
and eats them
one by one.
Over the other side
of the locked ward
two nurses struggle with Lucy
who has puked over
the front of her dress
and whose period has begun
and how she loathes
the sight of blood and red.
After the orange
Lily will wash her hands
and light up her third cigarette
and sit in the small lounge
and listen as the thin young man
play Satie on the piano
sitting in a trance like state
and she sits there
in her own world
waiting for lunch
or whatever
some god
decides
is her fate