Lobotomy, The Real Thing. (Howard Dully) Poem by richard ilnicki

When the leucotomes, the mind altering instruments
introduced by Dr. Egas Moniz,
entered my skulll,
they were driven by the competent hands of Dr. Walter Freeman.
The Henry Ford of lobotomies,
Freeman had turned the lobotomy into
an assembly line procedure.
He drove around the country in 'The lobotomobile'
and had performed over 5,000 lobotomies by the time of his death.

These glorified ice picks, orbitoclasts,
the name Freeman had given
to his personally designed lobotomy knives,
were designed to unscramble my brains.
The good doctor said this 'cutting edge' procedure
would be innocuous and relatively painless
because the human brain had the consistency,
under a knife, of 'Soft Butter.'

Expectations were high as the great day arrived
and a personal guaranteed had been rendered
that this proved procedure would make me
a better person,
give me a personality and make me normal.
After all, I had been declared a danger to myself
as well as a danger to others.
At least, this is what my concerned stepmother
said about me.
She could hardly wait for me
to go 'under the knife.'
Well, it came as no surprise to anyone, that my emasculated father concurred, and after two brief visits with the renowned surgeon
I I was deemed helpless, hopeless, and ratrher worthless.
The transorbital lobotomy was hastily scheduled,
and they entered my twelve year old compliant skull
through my eye sockets.
Ten minutes after he entered my skull
Dr. Walter Freeman unscrambled my confused brains,
and in the process
he scrambled the rest of my life.