Florida's Self Arrest Poem by James McLain

Constantly risking death
self arrest and it's absurdity.
Does this sound familiar
where ever I may roam
I must perform
and wear a yellow star.

Dancing
at the end of their
short rope
and giving up
the ghost
to be hung up
once again.

My audience lacks
the
Poets
yet is filled
with folks that will
abuse
small children on
their bus
such fear their parent's
spread.

Climbing to the top
the Frost the
chill
being pushed the edge
is always near.

Your father
said my mother
walks
through the valley
filled with
shadows of your
fear.

Posters
to the edges of the sky
torn faces are
release in Florida
means deceased
without a reason why.

My days are short
the pills I'm forced to take
by waking late
to reach the other side
I dream of night.

Punitive they say
it's not
but you know it is
all the money
that
I spent then punitive
it is.

The toll
that it has taken
on the young
the other
side of young
most will never
reach.

may God
have more than
mercy on this
soul
if my mind
decides to go
like
my mother's
Mother did.

Who
will make sure
my nursing
home
won't be prison
jail and death
they gave no thought
to this
Florida's self arrest
I'm
not a Jew
I'm just like you.