There was a man in PICU who didn’t say a word.
\nHe paced around in his underwear flinching at all he heard.
\nHe went out for a smoke with a coffee in his hand,
\nthen marched back inside for medication on demand.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
(This was about a month I spent living with a mute patient amongst others at a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit when I was 16. He had a tattoo of a small cross on his leg and I tried to shoehorn the blaspheme ‘Jesus!’ into something I said within his earshot. He was in his own world until I did. He got up from the chair and marched around for a bit. I felt bad for deliberately offending him but I’d never seen him react to anything other than smokes and coffee. I guess I was just trying to get him to say something… It didn’t work.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There was a man in PICU who didn’t say a word. He paced around in his underwear flinching at all he heard. He went out for a smoke with a coffee in his hand, then marched back inside for medication on demand. * * * (This was about a month I spent living with a … Continue reading 2003<\/span>