A scrap of bread lies
on the cobblestone floor.
Undisturbed,
Unreachable.

A prisoner starves
in his lonely cell.
Imprisoned,
Defeated.

He can see the piece of bread,
It's the first food he has seen for weeks.
Wondering if he can reach it,
the man decides to try.

His hand just fits under
the heavy wooden door,
but while the man reaches
his hand is clubbed without warning.

The man is confused because
he can only see the bread,
but there is a guard with a wooden club in hand
prepared to beat back the poor man's hand.

Now the man, he is strong,
so he continues to try
and the guards keep up with the beatings
a new guard every time.

The man keeps reaching
and the guards keep changing.
His hands are now bleeding
but the guards they keep beating.

This cycle goes on and on
until time runs together.
Then the final guard comes down
but the man is ready.

He reaches further than he has ever reached before
and he touches the bread.
He actually grabbed it
feeling it for only a moment makes all the beatings worth while.

The last guard stomps on his arm,
up near the elbow where the arm sticks from the door.
The guard watches as the man sqwirms
trying to pull his arm back, but that wont happen

The club is raised and brought down with force,
too many times to count
but more forceful
than ever before.

The man's fingers break.
Bones shatter and blood
drains from his body,
flowing onto the floor

but the guard continues to beat,
to break,
to shatter
and destroy.

Then the guard stops
and the man slowly withdrawals his hand.
He is left with a useless appendage,
the bread left untouched.

and his hand,
his ******* hand.
Broken beyond the ability to heal
and the man is left in his cold dark cell,
no longer able to feel.