I found him in the mental hospital. He was sleeping
on the bed between the empty scratched walls
dressed in jacket, with his sneakers on, neglected,
without bath for days, his face unshaved.
I woke him up. We went out into the hall.
This is my friend – he said with joy in his voice.
My friend has come to see me.
The mass behind bars started to move, sunken faces,
lifeless, dark faces, asking for cigarettes,
asking for a dime, asking if I was from the police.
We went out in the yard. I bought him meat pie
and yogurt and we sat on the bench in the open.
”If we were in Canada, now there would be a pond,
with ducks swimming, grass around us, all green,
flowers. Here the first day male nurses beat me up
badly, other lunatics took all my money.
You know, it goes like that when one
gets sick in mind as if chessboard is lost,
but all figures are in number”.