Three Letters from a Schizophrenic to Her Husband, 1909, by Kate Peper

Untitled Letter to Husband, by Emma Hauck (Germany) 1909

Three Letters from a Schizophrenic to Her Husband, 1909          
after Emma Hauck, Wiesloch Asylum, Germany
 
I
The first begins with a drizzle,
words on top of words,
the same words working
their way down, bumping,
veering off the left bank
of a manila landscape,
a creek dammed
into a pool of smeared graphite--
 
then begin again
on a chink of clear paper,
as if her writing needed air
 
before pouring down hard,
three thunderous columns
of   help   come
streaked with  hold me.
 
The page can’t hold her squall,
its bottom corner gives way,
everything floods.
 
II
A jumble of cursive heaped in trees,
a deep German forest
where light shines through needles:
Come  Sweetheart  Come
 
The words stampede:
Hurry, not much time,
the light is leaving.
The brambles are taking over,
lurching across my window.
Not much space left. Not much.
Just one small bit open, sweetheart.
It’s the moon, ballooning itself
over the asylum’s walls.
 
III
One word, come, greys
the paper to fog.
She feels blindly for an edge
with the blunt stub,
sinks into a mire
with a quick sucking in,
 
He won’t come  he won’t come  he won’t come

Kate Peper

Besides writing, Kate Peper loves to paint watercolours, garden obsessively and walk with her husband and semi-feral dog, Hannah, in Northern California. Her chapbook, Dipped In Black Water, won the New Women's Voices Award from Finishing Line Press, 2016 and can be purchased here: www.peperpoetry.com Her poems can be found in The American Journal of Poetry, The Baltimore Review, Cimarron Review, Potomac Review, Rattle, Tar River Review and others. If you’d like to see some of her award-winning art, please visit: www.peperprojects.com

Untitled Letter to Husband, by Emma Hauck (Germany) 1909

Untitled Letter to Husband, by Emma Hauck (Germany) 1909