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" Was it last month or last year
that the ambulance ran like a hearse
with its siren blowing on suicide—
Dinn, dinn, dinn!—
a noon whistle that kept insisting on life
all the way through the traffic lights?

I have come back
but disorder is not what it was.
I have lost the trick of it!
The innocence of it!
That fellow-patient in his stovepipe hat
with his fiery joke, his manic smile—
even he seems blurred, small and pale.
I have come back,
recommitted,
fastened to the wall like a bathroom plunger,
held like a prisoner
who was so poor
he fell in love with jail. "

Anne Sexton , Selected Poems


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Anne Sexton quote : Was it last month or last year<br />that the ambulance ran like a hearse<br />with its siren blowing on suicide—<br />Dinn, dinn, dinn!—<br />a noon whistle that kept insisting on life<br />all the way through the traffic lights?<br /><br />I have come back<br />but disorder is not what it was.<br />I have lost the trick of it!<br />The innocence of it!<br />That fellow-patient in his stovepipe hat<br />with his fiery joke, his manic smile—<br />even he seems blurred, small and pale.<br />I have come back,<br />recommitted,<br />fastened to the wall like a bathroom plunger,<br />held like a prisoner<br />who was so poor<br />he fell in love with jail.