My Schizophrenic Psych Ward Neighbor. By KEVIN RIDGEWAY

she yelled at her invisible father
and singled out an unassuming woman

for walking like a vulgar gangster
the nursing staff called her out

at smoke break for talking so much
her cigarette remained fully lit

and like an untouched meal

she had a black eye

and a shaved head from lice

and thought everyone was

saying fuck to her
she didn't fuck with me, though
because I took one look at her

and said that I was her mother

KEVIN RIDGEWAY lives and writes in Long Beach, CA. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Slipstream, Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, San Pedro River Review, The Cape Rock, Spillway, Up the River, Suisun Valley Review, KYSO Flash, Home Planet News, Cultural Weekly, Big Hammer, Misfit Magazineand So it Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. He is the author of six chapbooks of poetry. His latest book, A Ludicrous Split, a collaboration with fellow poet Gabriel Ricard, is now available from Alien Buddha Press.