The Beginning of Summer

It is early summer, the season when summer begins.
A time when people and the world prepare for the coming summer.

Summer is coming to Japan.

Summer is coming to the psychiatric ward as well.

Though, the ward does not groan in the sweltering heat,
nor are we irritated by the voices of cicadas screaming their lives away.

The only noise is the sound of people groaning in joy at the summer,
the joys and sorrows regarding summer heard from the outside.

Peace today, peace tomorrow.
A cage of manufactured peace.

There may be pros and cons to calling the ward a cage,
but we who learn how to live in a created environment where everything is managed are just like rescue dogs.

A cage that protects us from humans, a cage that protects humans from us.

There is no malice or harmful intent in it.

The "summer" I feel in this cage of peace,
is the summer that appears in our meals, the square-shaped summer I see through the window. That is all it is, though.

My everything.
I have, for the most part, no complaints.
I am blessed again today.

(May 2024)