The Evening News
earlier this week for painting on a wall
outside one of the city’s 17 prisons
has just escaped from solitary confinement.
As some of you may remember,
when the man was first detained
he told police he was an artist,
and that he was painting
on the wall of the prison
because he had no money
to pay for canvas.
Acting according to newly expanded
powers specifically designed to help
law enforcement officials fight terrorism,
the twelve police officers on the scene
sentenced the man, whose name cannot
be released under the new anti-terrorism rules,
to a term of 40 years in the same prison
he admitted to having defaced.
Although a full investigation
has been launched, an abundance
of highly visual evidence found at the scene
suggests the prisoner might really be an artist.
Here’s what one correctional officer
close to the scene had to say:
What I saw has all the earmarks of being
a full-blown imaginary world —
the product, in other words,
of a sick, sick mind.
Apparently, when the guard
on duty entered the prisoner’s cell
to administer the man’s daily beating,
he suddenly found himself in a dense
jungle teeming with wildlife
and lashed by wind and rain.
When the cell door slammed shut
behind him, the guard was locked inside.
From what he said sounded like
“an awful long way off,” the guard
could hear the prisoner laughing.
It is important to note this evening
that the prisoner is still at large,
and that he is considered dangerous.
Turning now to the president’s golf game . . .
October 10, 2005
Previous Entry Next Entry Return to Songs and Letters About the Author
Main Page
Author’s Note
Background
Notebook
A Listening Thing
Among the Living
No Time to Cut My Hair
One Hand Clapping
Songs and Letters
Collected Poems
Early Short Stories
Armenian Translations
Interviews
News and Reviews
Highly Recommended
Let’s Eat
Favorite Books & Authors
Useless Information
Conversation
E-mail & Parting Thoughts
Flippantly Answered Questions