September 2026 Poetry Contest Winner
Sunset in the Adult Psychiatric Ward
Auden Featherstone
Sunset in the Adult Psychiatric Ward
Just before the sun set We’d all file through stiff doors, All of us dried as rags left in the sink And stuck in squeezed shapes To watch the sky Over a cement wall where the men bounced deflated basketballs Against the gray And the women stood smoking cigarettes The sun would ooze itself across the clouds Leaving a trail of yellow and pink An engorged sun Vast and taunting in its welcome We would go inside and smear ourselves Across the floor, across the bed Festering in the thin hospital-grade sheets Our lungs leaked Air soured by breath Ready for the next morning The sun would piss its wonder all over us
About the poet
Auden Featherstone is a queer, non-binary writer and teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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