Today, They Drag Me Out Of My Mind Poem by richard ilnicki

Today, they drag me out of my mind,
the dark corner I occupy between midnight and dawn.
They arrive unannounced
carrying weapons of mass destruction:
psychotherapy, logotherapy, physiotherapy,
biofeedback, hair follicle analysis, EST, etc.

and charismatic prescriptions with endless refills
along with dog-eared books by the baker's dozen.

They tie my hands behind my back
with ribbons and bows of silk
then they pull me by my hair into the courtyard.
I am not kicking as I go.
I submit willingly to their practiced anomalous behavior,
their anachronistic lynch mob mentality.
These anonymous red-faced hooligans
covered by sheets of white lightning
come at once parasitic ring worms
out into the light; they suspect
I will scamper or slither

like some frightened bug, sneak,
snake in the grass exposed by truth,
but I surprise them.
I negotiate the steps of the scaffold
and welcome the noose with the sailor's knot.

I accept my fate by faith
because I am convinced and convicted
that if one died for all
then all were dead.