Two Poems by Ellen Gerneaux Woods
MEDIAN
I see you again today as I drive by on Powell
north from San Pablo on my way home
your face invisible under the dark beard
hair protrudes densely from your head
green eyes glowing like fireflies
you are wandering in the median
wrapped in sopping plastic bags
the only boundary between you
and battering sheets of rain
cars hasten by on either side
of this protected strip of land
bordered with seamless rows
of expansive oak trees
now deprived of their leaves
wind yowls through naked
branches while you walk alone
through the turmoil of the weather
refusing contact and handouts
is solitude your preferred home?
at night when the cars are asleep
do the stars talk to you and tell
you they are watching over you
does their presence console you?
INTACT
I first met you at the Ob-Gyn’s office
you were the receptionist first face upon
entering: early 40’s stunning hairdo
rising shy of a foot maybe ten inches atop
your head hair-sprayed into a perfect hive
I almost expected a bee to land on my arm
you greet me with an inquisitive look
requesting my name I was the only patient
in the waiting room your high pitched voice
echoes in my ears like a child’s persistent demand
the room small with three uncomfortable chairs desk
stacked with papers in neat rows waiting to be attended to
I see you ten years later
I am a social worker inpatient psych unit
you request admission claim depression
refuse to say more eye me with frozen face
in team meeting psychiatrist diagnoses you as paranoid
schizophrenic says your beehive conceals a weapon
says RN needs to cut your hair I disagree
feel it is a mistake you grip your hair keen
arms crossed in front of your heart
you are held down six inches cut reveals nothing but hair
I sit beside you listen as you weep little girl voice repeats
I tried to stop them they took my child
I tell you I will put your hair in a box to keep safe
you are discharged the next day
clutching the container of locks
Ellen Gerneaux Woods writes poetry and memoir. She is the author of The Watchful Heart Recedes (Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Warriors in Transition (Word Project Press, 2016). Her work appears in literary journals including Inquiring Mind, Blood and Thunder, About Place Journal, Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Is it Hot in Here Anthology, Persimmon Tree Magazine, and Poems of Political Protest: An Anthology, among others She is on the prose staff of the MacGuffin, a print journal.