A hundred voices in his head,
he looks at me but doesn't see.
He tries to listen, doesn't hear,
the voices always interfere.

For hours he lays in his bed,
the voices screaming louder now.
Sometimes it lasts for a whole day,
he isolates and stays away.

He talks out loud, repeats the words,
he tells me it's better that way.
Unsure of why these voices reign,
I only know they cause us pain.

I can't know what he's going through,
he doesn't seem to live in fear.
I only know what I observe,
no cure in sight, it's just absurd.

Schizophrenia is a scourge,
the medications keep him here.
I ask him sometimes what is said
when he hears voices in his head.

He tells me it's a buzzing sound,
with volume that you can't turn down.
"It's hard to know just what they say."
"It doesn't matter anyway."

And so it goes, this is his life,
he's used to it, it's commonplace.
But mental illness is the cause,
for all in life that's put on pause.