Don’t Touch My Back

Emily Nguyen

And what do you say back to the

Voices?

‘No one is touching

My back,’ she recites.

Good. You must talk back to

Them and

Tell yourself what’s

Real.

Her forehead glistening light pink,

The spot she banged and banged against the

Walls, then peeled away the tenderized skin with

Her fingers.

The stale hallways echoing with her

Pleads and whimpers,

‘Please stop touching

Me.’

The nursing staff holding her still, waiting for 

Silence.

Is she talking to the hallucinations, or to

Us?'

They are why she paces,

They are why she blasts loud music,

So she won’t notice them touching

Her back.

In treatment meeting today, her front tooth is

Missing. ’It was loose,’ she explained.

The light pink granulating over, a

Cobweb of fine scabs.

If the voices never go away,

If they are always going to touch

Your back,

Can you live with them like this?

She nods. Mouth agape, hole where tooth once was,

Light pink spot, now rust,

‘Yes.’

Eyes staring past us, to the wall, ‘Yes, I can.’

About the Author

Emily Nguyen is a 3rd year medical student at George Washington University.