May Contain Traces of Nuts

He is briefly out of the asylum
at the wooden kitchen table

opening macadamias
with a 4 lb claw hammer

he cracks the shell hard
flattening the nut into paste

later I hang out the wash
his nose smeared against

the pane. He is off his medication
again. Rough Claret bottles under his

bed. The hateful voices guttural.
Rising in misshapen ghouls within him.

That night he plunges a steak knife deep into
his chest cavity miraculously missing his organs.