With flaccid handshake and pallor

the boy introduces himself,
as Judas the Betrayer.

 

He is stiff, staring and flat of affect.
The doctor sees illness
in his eyes and posture.

 

The boy speaks and the doctor hears
the song of disordered thought
in meter and harmonics.

 

The doctor asks a set of questions
and orders medication with a note
as the boy is led away.

 

Now he knows that in a few days
Judas will again scramble
across the Field of Blood

 

and fall headlong and burst in the middle
and his insides will spill out
and we will be rid of him again.

 

Or perhaps when he cannot sleep,
he will close his eyes tightly
and see his own silhouette hanging.

 

And it is with this thought that the doctor
picks up the phone and
orders an overnight watch.