In the middle of madness

It only cost me a penny,
snatched by the guards greedy hand
as he reached for the riveted iron plate,  
sliding it back, '5 minutes' I had to look inside.
 
The paid for poor, all society's afflicted,
shackled in chains, manacles, locks and stocks
deployed in daily isolation,  
the knuckle dust of beaten compassion,
running in rivulets of piss and blood.
 
That's when I saw him,
chained to the wall, his head shaved
mouthing an unheard rhetoric
into the asylums raucous din.
My privileged eye finding  
the wideness of his.
 
As I watched his mouth move
I could smell the stench inside the cells,  
hear the night terrors
ravaging across the open halls,
I began to syncronise with his words.
 
I shouldn't be here, it wasn't me
call the guards, I should be free.
rocking back an forth trying  
to steady the failing wreck.
I shouldn't be here, it wasn't me
call the guards, I should be free.
 
I couldn't  look away, if I did
I might never find myself again.