Oregon State Hospital

^{translated from the Protactile by John Lee Clark}

Wandering in the museum
I came across a woman’s story.

Let us conjure her up
in the form of a fist.

First, they knocked her head
and they said, Tsk-tsk.

Next, they zapped her
and they said, Huh.

Next, they shone lights in her face
and they said, Phooey.

Finally, they bored a hole here
and another here.

Her head tilted gently to the side
and they said, Aha.

Copyright © 2023 by Roberto Cabrera. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 13, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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“Being a Protactile educator via the DeafBlind Interpreting National Training and Resource Center (now known as the Protactile Language Interpreting National Education Program) comes with an opportunity to play the language of Protactile with a group of DeafBlind educators and a group of interpreters. In 2019, we took a field trip to Oregon State Hospital. The visit was a conversation starter, leading to the creation of an early draft of this poem.”
—Roberto Cabrera