Close Obs
=========

* David Gilbert

*   Mental health care
*   User

> I'm curled into a ball
> 
> on a thin mattress on the floor
> 
> covered with a crinkly nylon sheet
> 
> smelling faintly of sick and piss.

> Outside the heavy brown door
> 
> sits Len, muscly, tanned,
> 
> with the Mirror crossword.
> 
> Not much older than me,

> he's done his fair share 
> 
> of hurtling down corridors
> 
> readying needles full of Depixol
> 
> to slam into the arses of lunatics

> like me I suppose.
> 
> As my sobbing slows
> 
> I hear him humming tunelessly
> 
> and clicking the end of his pen: 

> ‘Mate, your mum said
> 
> you didn't use to be such a dickhead.
> 
> Let's see. Try this for starters: 
> 
> French for dead-end, 3-2-3?'

> I don't know whether he's
> 
> smart enough to be taking the mick
> 
> but I'm damned if this mad man
> 
> will ever tell him the answer.

## Footnotes

*   Competing interests None.

*   Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

*   Twitter Follow David Gilbert at [@DavidGilbert43](http://twitter.com/DavidGilbert43)