Discrimination

staring at a monitor
a black and white picture
on a closed circuit
a psychiatrist on one side
of a wooden table

that separates two men
a psychopath on the other
a hanging light fixture
a 30-watt incandescent bulb
and someone mumbling madness

about how he took a dragon
an "infant" in one hand
poured a solution in it's mouth
mixture of water, peroxide
chloroforms, and so on

so it wouldn't breathe on him
incinerate his chest
found him in the emergency room
foam on his body
without any clothes on

he'd committed arson
yet he blames dragons
anyway he clipped it's wings
so it couldn't take flight
yet it bit back

this time his hand was bloody
again we found him
wrapped in gauze
which was bled through
yet what is the crime

a schizophrenic who
inflicts pain on themselves
thinks women are evil
will cast spells on him
we've found frogs and toads

and in the interest of decency
the idea is to prevent him
from doing the unthinkable
yet the thoughts persist
so I turn the monitor off