The Visiting Room

    A visitor and an offender may hold hands as long as
    the hands are in plain view of others.
    —Department of Corrections and Community
    Supervision Visiting Rules

On the Way In the Ritual Is Imposed
We remove shoes for floors
            made of concrete and weeping
                        sweeps a battle cry into siren,
the slaughterhouse bell.
            We shuffle through the metal detector
                        as one dumb animal. We spread. Kneel.
We’ll come out missing parts. This we know. Cough.