First Day at the Asylum

First Day at the Asylum
after James Wright

I flailed in anguish                      Like a wounded fowl          The white coats carried me
Through sterile halls                    I thrashed about                In frantic haste
Nails screeched across walls      Too little too late                They delivered me
To my desolate cell                    To amend me                    To strike away my very existence
They recorded                            They issued                      They demanded to know
My name                                  My number and              How my day began
As they stripped                        My new identity                They burned
My clothes                                With wretched grins          The drugs
They forced me                          Sadistically twisted          To cripple me
Into hopeless defeat                    They taunted                    Beyond recovery