are we prisoners
of the words in our mouths — or
do they set us free?
From last night’s dream to this poem is a long stretch. In the dream, there was a psychiatrist, an army wife, a day trip for Catholic parishioners, and a discussion about a set of teeth. So then as I wrote my poem, I noticed that psychiatry, the military, Catholicism and dentistry all share a certain punitive character. I wondered about how we are defined by our jobs — and more — how we simply accept that these roles exist in the world and we happily slot ourselves into them. This led me to think of my ‘role’ as a writer. And hence the poem.