Like an Animal
Behind the smooth texture Of my eyes, way inside me, A part of me has died: I move my bloody fingernails Across it, hard as a blackboard, Run my fingers along it, The chalk white scars That say I AM SCARED, Scared of what might become Of me, the real me, Behind these prison walls.
Like an Animal - meaning Summary
Fear Behind Prison Walls
The poem depicts an internal collapse and persistent fear shaped by imprisonment. The speaker describes a part of himself as dead and marked by physical gestures—scraping fingernails and chalk-white scars—which externalize anxiety and a fraught sense of identity. It presents confinement not just as a location but as a state that hides the "real me" while the speaker confronts the possibility of losing himself to fear and the prison experience.
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