Arrested

Suffering the effects of heat stroke I was suspected of being drunk. I was taken into police custody then later released when it was determined that there were no drugs or alcohol in my system. This experience gave me an insight into the world of insanity.

Arrested

Heavy labor in the hot sun; shoveling,
carrying, stumbling. No shade, no rest,
no water. My vision wavers and shimmers
like a faulty TV screen. I feel distant;

an outsider looking in, anesthetized.
The world moves slowly as in a dream.
I fumble to find my way, to communicate
in what seems to be a foreign dialect.

On the brink of sanity I teeter, then fall.
Through a cloud I grope for normalcy.
There is no one to translate my thoughts
into a language others would understand.

At gunpoint I am ordered to my knees,
then face in the gravel. Handcuffs tighten
cutting into my flesh. I'm forced into the back
of a police cruiser where there is no comfort.

You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be used
against you in a court of law. You have
the right to an attorney. If you cannot
afford an attorney, one will be provided
for you at interrogation time and at court.

Yellow concrete blocks, stainless steel
bed and toilet, bars isolate me from others.
Uniforms observe, interrogate then draw conclusions.
My thoughts are questions devoid of answers.

I speak a language of confusion, neither connecting
nor relating. I am talked about in the third person.
Dazed, confused, I am delivered from the wasteland
to reality and expected to explain my absence.