From the Lost Diary of Anna Anderson: I. Open Ward at the Elisabeth Hospital, Berlin, 1920

By Allison Titus
I.  Open Ward at the Elisabeth Hospital, Berlin, 1920

      My tongue is a spoon.

      Does that explain it?    Door opens    door

      closes. White coats stammer the threshold.

      They draw the sheets      again     and again

      I give them nothing.     My mouth

      is a splinter        not telling.

      They ask if I fell from the bridge

      or did I jump.         They ask

      my name.

Copyright Credit: Allison Titus, “From the Lost Diary of Anna Anderson: I. Open Ward at the Elisabeth Hospital, Berlin, 1920” from Sum of Every Lost Ship. Copyright © 2010 by Allison Titus. Reprinted by permission of Cleveland State University Poetry Center.
Source: Sum of Every Lost Ship (Cleveland State University Press Poetry Center, 2010)