You were identified, despite your rinsing
Beneath each cuticle until it bleeds.
You've got to close your eyes it's so convincing:

The shocking pearl of a shared cell, here leaches
Into your chest, mutates to supersede
Identity. Despite his rinsing, bleaching,

The bandaged, boney man ladling mincemeat
Ladles bio-warfare. On forms perceived
You've sickly stuffed your eyes. It's so convincing

That you're nauseous without bleach's overpowering
Thirst licking you, so here you won't eat
And are identified: In spite of all your bleaching, scouring,

They judge you sick, and bear you to the penal
Infirmary: Viral crossfire, your sheet
(Convince your eyes it's not so close) a scat-blacked pall,

The boney man nearby each night, beseeching
His rosary, no, something between the beads
To be identified through his rinsing, rubbing fric-
-Tion; it might seem, to untrained eyes, conviction.