"Waiting For My Clothes" by Leanne O'Sullivan

This poem generated the greatest sense of curiosity for me compared to the other poems we read. Not only is the poem mysterious but it makes you wonder what the poet is trying to get the reader to believe. The title alone is very strange and gets your mind working on why this poem would be named this. The poem tells how a woman is waiting for her clothes to be returned to her while being watched by doctors. These doctors have taken her clothes and her journal – the two things that expose all of her secrets. She feels that if these doctors read her journal then they will know her in every way, “I think of those doctors knowing me naked ... taking my soul from between my ribs” (O’Sullivan 17).

I have many questions about this poem and most of them summarize to ask the question: is this woman insane? After reading the poem over and over again, I concluded that she is in a mental hospital. But why is she in this hospital; what has she done? She claims in the poem, “They hear my voice as they read and think. Who is this girl that is speaking?” (O’Sullivan 18). I get that the doctors are trying to figure out who she really is and if she might have actually committed a crime. Or maybe they’re getting details on her personality to investigate the case for why she’s in the mental hospital. But what if she isn’t insane at all? Maybe she’s a normal human being that lost her husband and was very depressed so they put her in this crazy place. There are so many circumstances for why she could be in this mental hospital, and that keeps me wondering.

The problem is the poet does not answer any of my questions. They are all conclusions from reading the poem. She ends the poem with “Like dreams, my clothes come out of their boxes” (O’Sullivan 18).  That quote alone leaves the door open for a curious mind. She leaves the questions unanswered so the reader can read the poem over and over and still ask so many questions. She wants to leave the reader curious and looking for that right answer. Only the best poems, books, or movies end that way because curiosity leads the mind to another level.

I also think the poet left out so much information because she doesn’t want the reader to know if this was a real life experience or a creative mind. Again, if she explained every aspect of the poem in detail it wouldn’t be as interesting or entertaining and most likely the reader wouldn’t want to reread the poem. This does frustrate me somewhat because I want to know the true answers about what she is talking about. It is such a strange topic to write a poem about but she portrays it into a real life situation and makes the reader feel like he or she is in her shoes waiting on her clothes. This poem speaks volumes.