forty years young
not old enough to be locked
in this biological prison
my open eyes
and full hair belie
my condition

see me look at me
i am still in here
somewhere
trying to tell
you who i am

my mother visits me now
twice a week
otherwise i lie
still soul shuttered to the
world

the docs and nurses never seeing
that i was a wizard in the kitchen
i was lovely and active
and ambitious
yet now all they see
is a vegetable hooked to
their machines
waiting for them to run
out of patience and
pull the plug

i was lisa
hit by someone using their car
as a lethal weapon
two years ago
flung up in the air
in the balmy spring night

see me i am still in here
my mother believes
and reads to me
holding onto hope
for a sign from
me
even if it takes years