Maybe it’s been one long day
and somebody else’s god
has been switching the lights
on and off
so light and dark
black and white
are like strobe lights in a club
but it’s quietNO MUSIC
no soulCLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
My door is always locked and I watch
through the small window
the guys gathering in the dayroom
taking seats like it’s about to be
a meeting or something
and I’m stuck in this box
staring behind the glass
and there’s some other dude
in a box banging and telling the guards
to get him the fuck out
They run to his door and
I can’t see what they’re doing
to him but I hear him cursing
shouting kicking fighting and then
quietquietand the other guys
are sitting in the dayroom
waiting for something to start and
that’s when I see hergliding
holding something in her arms—
a poster board and markers
She’s smiling and the guys sit up
smooth out their sweatshirts
smooth down their eyebrows
smooth out all their wrinkles
their mistakes, their mean mugs
and I think I see them smiling, too
and she looks over at the guards
dragging that other dude
through the dayroom and he’s
like a wet socksubdued
and I wonder for a second if
he’s even still alive but that
doesn’t matter because she looks
at my door and I make sure
that I’m in that small window so
she can see my face and maybe
she can ask the guards why I’m
stuck in here like thatShe can
ask the guards to let me out so
I can see what everybody’s
smiling about but she stops
She doesn’t smile anymore and she
looks down and she sets up her things
like she’s starting the meeting
and I knowI feel as if
she’s about to teach something I don’t
already know and I knowI feel it
that those guys are not even gonna care
They’re just looking at herjust staring
like I am right nowbehind the tiny window
in a boxin a box
in a boxin a box