Liesl Jobson

ANGELS, THE VOICES

Angels, the voices,
don't like prozac
don't like lithium
don't like doctors
presupposing they know
the things I hear, and other
dangerous assumptions.

Angels, the voices,
want to be heard,
to be reassured
they won't be ignored.
Because, when heeded,
angels, the voices,
made me better.

Angels, the voices
don't take flight,
like disturbed friends, crows
who don't want to catch
the thing I have.

Angels, the voices
carry me over
frothing evangelicals
who speak in tongues,
drooling crazy spit,
who weep, and fit.

Angels, the voices
dig holes in unlikely spots
to bury bad pills
and toxic religion.

They plant rose bushes
on the sacrificial mound
bearing bouquets of hope
for the emerging guest.

Angels, the voices
remove their gardening gloves,
take out their trumpets
announce the celebratory song,
the emerging quest - recovery's
arrival at a safer space.

Liesl Jobson is a bassoonist in the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous publications in South Africa and internationally. She won the POWA Women's Writing Competition and the 2006 Ernst van Heerden Award from the University of Witwatersrand. She edits poetry at Mad Hatters Review. A collection of her flash fiction "100 Papers" will be published later this year by Botsoto Press.