This piece is featured in Issue No. 10 Bloom

Poetry

I can make attendants laugh

I can make attendants laugh
While declaring I am a risk to myself and others
Watch them chuckle with me at this insanity
Put my belongings in a plastic bag and I am left feeling naked
after a mandatory coat check
Shuffle into a room, maybe with thick glass
onlooking rows of desks and monitors
Maybe a locked room with privacy curtains drawn
Dart around the space like a fish in a new tank
An unfamiliar concrete castle in the distance
A serpentine moat designed to wrap around sick bodies
To keep them in place, strapped to linoleum floors
I am suspended by drop ceilings
And suspected by an iris in the corner of the room
Why are there no doorknobs in this place?

Rebecca Casalino

Rebecca Casalino is an artist, writer and curator based in Ohròn:wakon (Hamilton, ON). Casalino completed her BA in Studio Art, with a minor in English, at the University of Guelph in 2017. She is a 2021 graduate of OCAD U’s MFA program in Criticism and Curatorial Practice. Casalino is a queer Italian-Canadian settler, maintaining her practice through deeply personal collaborations in her community and sheer willpower. Casalino channels her lived experiences through her quirky, often deadpan, humour.