In This Room
In this room
There’s no life at all.
I sit and wait
For my one phone call.
In this room
It’s cold and lonely.
I reflect and ponder
My testimony.
How could I have gotten
Into such a mess?
I was there, but
I was just a witness.
Burned and scared,
I left to seek aid.
Upon my return,
I was betrayed.
Denounced and ridiculed
By those who serve and protect;
I was slammed to the ground
Out of sheer cockiness.
Time crawls by
While my skin dissolves.
A medic appears
And wraps my burn with gauze.
I started this poem in 1982, prior to my jail experience. In 1985, after that unpleasant episode, I revised the poem but never quite finished it. I had put it away all of these years. A few months ago, I began revising it again. There are some missing pieces that I have yet to complete that are important to the story. When I finish the story, I will add it to this post.
The “backstory”:
I was house sitting for a friend at his apartment while he was out of town. I burned myself while cooking a pot of spaghetti. I had second and third degree burns on my thigh requiring a visit to the emergency room. It was a Saturday and my regular doctor’s office was closed. I was unable to find my key to the apartment and asked the management if they could let me in to retrieve my things after I returned from the ER. I didn’t want to leave the door unlocked and I couldn’t concentrate on searching for the key with my injury. I asked a friend who lived close by to drive me to the ER. When I arrived at the ER, I realized I did not have any identification. The triage nurse told me they couldn’t treat me without providing some kind of ID. I returned to the apartment in less than a half hour and the manager refused to talk to me. My friend managed to open the door without the key. I entered the apartment, found my wallet with my ID and, of course, the key. By the time I turned around to leave, I was surrounded by police officers. My friend had apparently left the scene. I was arrested for “criminal trespass.” The charge was reduced to “disorderly conduct” and adjudicated in exchange for my plea of “no contest.”
