I DON'T KNOW HOW I GOT TO WHERE I WAS OR EVEN WHERE I WAS

Running a fever
like the kind I got
from street tattoos in New Delhi
where they power the apparatus
with a car battery
and have just one blackened rag
to wipe away the blood and ink
I was warned

The car had more legroom
than I needed
a source of great shame
but that was offset somewhat
by the no way in hell these seats
are covered in the finest Corinthian leather
Corinthian vinyl more like
possibly the dreaded Naugahyde

I slept in a room
with bricked up windows
and dangling fluorescent lights
a place where operations could be performed
if I could only
make up my damn mind
what was wrong with me
the doctor on call was too impatient

Escorted to the border
the sentry made quite a show
of brushing lint and burrs from my shoulders
and pushed my forelocks in the wrong direction
with a comb missing several teeth
echoing the gaps in his smile
which he couldn't or wouldn't turn off
his last words to me: "Care is taken".