“Glass Ceilings” by Goodwell Kaipa
Goodwell Kaipa is a 27 year old nurse midwife graduate. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his first year of college in 2015. He wrote this poem after noticing the stigma surrounding mental illnesses.
Sometimes I find her sitting outside at night
Gazing at the stars or otherwise still sky.
When she is in this stupor
She never winks, blinks, never looks at you.
Doctors say there is nothing to do
That the blankness on her physiognomy
Will always be there
Neither their words or her gaze, faze me
Sometimes she talks in her sleep.
Sometimes her face lights up with eerie glee.
Often people come just to look at her —
Not to give us a word of hope
But to amuse themselves —
Likening her to an imbecile.
Their words don’t daze me
My sister as the sanest person I know.
She loves talking to me
When sometimes the wind changes course,
She says she wants to get married,
To have a family and lead a normal life.
I wonder which man will truly love my sister
Who will view her differences as a lovely quirk?
She lives in a society that pretends to be flawless
When barricades are built against those different.
