BASKET UPSET!

Basket Upset   by Colleen Glatzel

“BASKET UPSET!

A voice screams interrupting melancholy day dreams

Numb faces of debilitating depression

 transform to confused expressions

The “professionals” tirelessly attempt to teach us lessons

Asking us to bring forth our confessions

Teeth clenched we all feel the tension

They want to know about our

drug possessions

teenage agressions,

our family sessions.

And then a voice is heard

screaming in response to it’s detention,

“BASKET UPSET”

Our faces are painted with steady stares

begging the bellowing banshee to beware.

And the “professionals” ask the voice

“What brought you here?”

And nobody knows.

Was it an overdose?

Depression woes?

Drug abuse?

Drinking boos?

Or was it violence?

And there is no answer

Just a sad silence

We know why we’re here but we still ask ourselves,

“What really brought us to this prison cell?

Was it heaven or was it hell?”

But the voice knows it’s answer and it knows it well,

It thunderously yells

“BASKET UPSET”

Our eyes grew as our jaws fell

We hear the voice again

It’s turbulent

It’s clear

But the voice still wavers

encumbered with fear

We hear it emanating from the quiet room

The place of impending doom

And then there are the noises

Noises of laughter, noises of tears

Most of all the noise of

“BASKET UPSET”

Which will bounce off the scratched up walls

for years and years

And all of us get up

 We stand

The depressed

 The drugged

The just plain damned

With laughing faces, we all switched places

A group of young and restless basket cases

We said so long to defeat

as we all switched seats

As our hearts swelled

 we triumphantly yelled

“BASKET UPSET”

(This poem is meant to be spoken, therefore I don't know if it sounds awkward when read in one's head. Also, I know that the Doctor said stray away from rhyme, but it's just how it came out. However, there are many magazines looking to publish slam poems. After years of freestyle rapping with thugs I meet on the street, I know I need to work on not rhyming. Tell me what you think, kids!)