Stranger

The world was going to crack
in two, and the whispers had told
me just where that crack would
start.

____ I alone could save the world,
they whispered.

So to Switzerland I went, up close
to that shard of a mountain, the
Matterhorn. I circled it for many
days, trying to locate the beginning
of the crack.

________________  I talked to people,
who laughed and told me I was cracked.
But the voices were always there,
and they were so insistent.

My hair and beard grew long and
shaggy. I was running out of
food and money, and the chilly
season was beginning to set in.
No sign of the crack.

And then the whispering stopped.

___________ I was beginning to
get worried about myself. But
the voices in my throat had been
so clear, so specific, chattering
away as they had been.

_____________________ I alone
could save the world.

But in the end I called an ambulance
and had myself checked in.

– Niebla ( © 2008 )

Based on a true story told by my daughter, who did an internship with a psychiatrist in the Alps.

My contribution to Sunday Scribblings’ Stranger.