I was handcuffed by Broward County
\nofficers, loaded in the back seat
\nlike luggage, closed inside. The plastic
\nfelt like the bed of a truck with a hollow
\nfor my cuffed hands. Plexiglass.
\nGuns on hips. They talked about dinner
\nplans and partner banter, while my mask
\nfogged my glasses and I sobbed in silence.
\nAdmissions to Imperial Point was a large
\nroom, eight reclining chairs. A shot of
\nAtivan felt like a flu shot. A shot of Hell dog,
\nand I woke on a plastic, springless mattress
\nperched on a plastic bolted bed.
\nBreakfast at 8am. First group at 9am.
\nBolted tables and weighted chairs.
\nTwigs of pencils, no chocolate, hard
\nbacks contraband. All quiet save
\nMeth Head Santa banging on
\nthe window to the south ward with his
\ntoothless mouth pressed against the glass.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve gotta get to work!\u201d Hell dog
\ndidn\u2019t win that fight. Hours where
\nI laid in bed staring out my triple
\npaned windows at the Miami skyline.
\nI stared, studied, slowed my breathing,
\nlet my mind sift out the large thoughts,
\ndevour them, and sit in empty silence.
\nCaroline was quiet. Resigned. Lonely.
\nRoll over, let the clattering settle, stare
\nat the bolted bedside table, the shared
\nbathroom, the door that couldn\u2019t close.
\nStill not Baker Acted. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was handcuffed by Broward County officers, loaded in the back seat like luggage, closed inside. The plastic felt like the bed of a truck with a hollow for my cuffed hands. Plexiglass. Guns on hips. They talked about dinner plans and partner banter, while…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103239,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103238\/revisions\/103239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}