Tohm Bakelas is a social worker in a psychiatric hospital. He was born in New Jersey, resides there, and will die there.
His poems have been featured in the Outlaw Poetry Network, Nixes Mate Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Piker Press, Ghost City Press, Tower Journal, Medusa's Laugh Press (forthcoming), Weasel Press (forthcoming), and The Raw Art Review (forthcoming) and he has and he has two recently published chapbooks Orphan Crows (Analog Submission Press, July 2018) and Destroy My Wound (Budget Press, August 2018) and a microchap book We All Arive (Origami Poems Project, October 2018).
► Tohm's microchap & selected poems are available below.
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Origami Microchap
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We All Arrive
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Cover collage by Jan Keough
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Every microchap
may be downloaded
for free
from this website.
(Set printer for landscape)
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We All Arrive
if there is one thing i have learned
since working in psychiatric hospitals
it is that you should
take your time
when walking
walk in a manner that is comfortable
to you
and only you
there is never a reason to rush
to power walk to run to dash
eventually we all arrive
it may be to a different ward
or different location
and it may be different to
the employees or the patients
galloping behind you
however
we all arrive
eventually at the same destination
and that same destination
is death
so take your time
slow your stride
look outside once in a while
better yet
go outside
and
never
look
back.
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Tohm Bakelas © 2018
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It's A Pity More People Don't Walk In The Rain
i departed my desk
leaving for a walk
down the corridor of the damned
and through the threshold of the lost
onward to the outside world
when i finally exited the hospital
people were running
people with faces unable to be identified
people whose faces i could not discern
all i knew is that they looked like coworkers
they looked like people i passed in hallways
but today, outside, they were all running
rain was falling from the sky
gentle, not hard
a refreshing mist
people were running and
cars were flying
i took my time
i welcomed the rain
i permitted the rain to cleanse my face
soak my clothes
penetrate my pores
baptize my soul
and then i saw it
a radiating face in the distance
she too was taking her time
damp brown hair, saturated clothes
our eyes met and our lips muttered the same
two letter word
that so many people were unable to do
and failed to do
because they were running
they were panicked
fearful that the rain might erase their existence
she and i. the only two living beings
caught in the nuclear shockwave of rain
two letters shared like rain
“hi”
she passed and i arrived to my car
i had no destination
i had no cares
i had never felt more free.
it’s a pity more people don’t walk in the rain.
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Tohm Bakelas© 2018
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