The Circle

by Erin Ryan Meyer

I was taken in the night

Try to sleep

On stains of those that slept here

Before me

Nightmares don’t stop

When the nurses wake for blood

I have entered with nothing

So they can’t take anything

Stinging lights

Sitting in a circle

With branches of family trees

Pregnant silence

Untold stories

Unwelcome visitors come

Windows offer no escape

Just views of concrete and gates

Bricks that ache through empty halls

Air suffocates

Screams that shake the cold white walls

Time marked only by feeding

Food boiled of sustenance

Nothing to keep off the dark

But a sheet

Stick out your tongue

White tablets turn out the night

I become void

Erin Ryan Meyer is a recent graduate, who majored in European history and minored in art history. She enjoys reading, art, and video games. She is currently living at the Jersey Shore while she starts her career.