Rocket Ship

Rocket Ship
by Sophia Falco

I condensed the power of the ocean
into one single droplet of water
it was my hot tear that warped time
during my fourteen day stay
in the psychiatric hospital,
my body no longer felt like mine—
oh mania.

My nurse told me to paint every day,
art therapy she said,
but I could only paint
countless of red rocket ships
that I longed to escape on,
to connect my body
to my mind that was somewhere
lost in space
and threatened by a black hole.

(I could feel she was disappointed in me.)

I taped up each identical painting
to my wall
just to realize that
part of me was still on earth.