Thursday, January 04, 2007

Medication Management--Poetry Thursday

Prozac, Luvox, Symbyax,

Lizzie Borden took an axe
Gave her mother forty whacks.

Ambien, Valium, Geodon,

When she saw what she had done.
Gave her father forty-one.

I have always wondered why psychiatric medicines had such nasty sounding names. All the x's, z's, k's. Most of them don't manage to sound like "happy pills". Somehow it turned into how to write a poem featuring drug names and then trying to rhyme them and Lizzie Borden popped into my head. This is how free association works, I guess. Especially when trying to write poems while driving. I was taught the Lizzie Borden ditty by my mother--Freudian? I never did jump rope to it.
As an historical aside, Lizzie Borden lived from 1860-1927 and was accused of the murder of her father and step-mother. She was acquitted but the murders were never solved. I am not trying to imply that Lizzie Borden was mentally ill or that the mentally ill are axe murderers. I am not totally responsible for my twisted mind, but mine is not responsible for these bizarre medication names.
For more on Lizzie go to Wikipedia.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
I find your poem catchy, bu then I'm from a medical family so medications are dinner table talk! I liked being reminded of the history of Lizzie Borden, too.

I guess it's a matter of interpretation in regard to whether the medication name is "nasty sounding" because I don't feel that way about the sound of "ambien" (I think of ambience), nor of "librium" which reminds me of libra-balance alhtough there is a ton of more psychiatric meds like "zoloft" (I can see that wouldn't necessarily make someone think of lofty heights even though it's an antidepressant.

Or do you mean harsh sounding? I can hear that with those x's (like xanax), zs, and k's. So if I misunderstood you, sorry! Now the taste of many liquid medicines is an entirely different matter. Nasty, oh yes!! Creative work.

Unknown said...

I actually ambien, which is a sleeping pill, doesn't sound so bad, it just had to fit in with the rhyme there. My guess is ambien means to evoke AM bien, as in good morning.
But I did mean harsh sounding. To me Prozac should be something you take for a nasty infection (Ceftazidine) not something supposed to make you feel better when depressed.
There are a few nice sounding ones, I like Sonata (except it's also a car, Abilify (rehabilitate?). Of course it's really what they do that counts.

Debo Blue said...

What a great return to childhood w/that rhyme. We actually used to double-dutch to it. As children we didn't think about it being a double homicide. Funny how one little ditty can evoke such good memories.

Booklogged said...

I remember that little ditty about Lizzie Borden from childhood. I think your poem is great.

When I was in college I read a biograpy of Lizzie and it swayed my thinking that she was probably innocent. The movie with Lindsey Wagner provided the answer to how she could have done the murders and it was quite convincing, too. I want to know what really happened!

SignGurl said...

I have an obsession with Lizzy Borden. That is a crazy story.