I will celebrate
My Outsider Sisters
The “Mad”
The “Bad”
The “Dangerous to Know”
The “Untamed”
The “Too Loud”
The Witches
The “Bitches”
The “Whores”
The “Sluts”
The “Straight”
The “Gay”
The “Bi”
The “Trans”
The Broken and Strong
The Truth Tellers
The “Deviant”
The Bullshit Callers
The “Ball Busters”
The ones who can always see
And say out loud when
The Emperor stands naked
And the ones still looking
For that voice, still silenced
And yearning to speak from
That Outsider vantage point
The truths only they can know

Bob Wertzler is retired from almost twenty years in the mental health field in California and Arizona. There are times the title, “Recovering Therapist”, seems to fit. In 2006 he retired to move to Western North Carolina to help and become primary care giver for his father who had developed Dementia. Before all that, there was work at various times as a soldier (US Army 1967-70), community organizer, cab driver, welfare case worker, wooden toy maker, carpenter, warehouse worker, and other things. He relates to a line in a Grateful Dead song, “What a long, strange trip its been.”