The Chain

Lung-Fa Tang Buddhist Sanctuary, Taiwan, where mental patients, one deemed more stable and another less so, are shackled together at all times at the waist with a chain for the "therapeutic purposes" purported by the facility's director. Pairs photographed by Chien-Chi Chang in the series titled "The Chain," 1998.

The one on the right is the scowling
father, firm grip on the hand of
his charge, who looks up
like a whipped dog.

They are both bald and fat. One is short, the other tall.
Everything is subject to their amusement.

Their hand touch, palm to palm, about to clasp.

They stand as far apart as chains allow.

Barefoot among
maggoty corpses and the din
of a million hens cackling,
they are put to work shoveling feces.
They are trained to use the group latrine
at the same time, then the group shower,
then to pick ill-fitting clothes
from the donated pile. Most wear sailor suits,
the kind schoolchildren wear.

The women's heads are shaved.
The one on the right lifts her arms to her face.
The one on the left floods with hate.

The one on the right looks like he will kill
the one on the left, who
screams at something else behind.
Kill him with these hands, using this chain.

The one on the right puckers his mouth, ready to kiss.
The one on the left is lobotomized.
The chain hangs limp between.

The one on the right
drools saliva onto his shirt.
The one on the left
puts his arm around him.

This one is being led away by the one on the right,
the taut chain tugs at him. He looks back at us
straight in the eye.

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