Mmpi Psychological Evaluation Poem by Jacob Bearer

For grad school I took a [test]
filling in empty circles, true or false
in a white washed asylum,537 questions full.

Does this description apply to you (t) or (f) :
"I have been angry, "
(when I see his arrogant face
wrapped in a red beard
praising his reflection)
true.

"I follow the directions of those in authority, "
(mopping the floors, again,
like how you showed me,
with skunked dark water)
false.

"Never can one trust another, "
"Everything is a test, "
(…)

I hear my mother whisper
my teenage secrets,
so white and so dark embarrassing,
to her friends
who meet me with a tender-er smile
when I see them after the doctors visit, true.

I feel my father's dark pupils
shrink my 7th grade wood shop table,
that took me two months to lathe and lacquer,
to a macaroni noodle;
it's sheen now gone to dull dust, true.

These paltry scars have calloused,
have festered, have grown sharp as knives

and their resurrections took two blank bubbles.