A quick interrogation on the tube,
and I’m in an olive drab room,
with a stark Van Gogh type table,
separating me from a moustache and goatee,
in a South American military uniform,
snapping a horsewhip against his thigh,
who wants to question the questions.

What, he shouts, 
is the most diverse and controversial,
it has an all-encompassing grasp.
What are you here for, and
what is it that you can do for me?

Where, is usually more specific, 
but can seem infinite in scope as 
an unknown. 
Where exactly are you from?

When, requires an understanding of time, 
he stamps his boot, 
which we all pretend,
twirls the point of his beard,
but very few achieve.

The Commandant, 
now wants to get back to the original quiz. 
It’s 11 PM, do you know, 
where your children are?

Their location being the obvious
open-ended, the ‘where’.  
But the underlying, 
between-the-lines, 
that seem of most import to him,
What constitutes your children,
and what difference is it, 
that it happens to be 11 PM?

It’s actually 10 PM, 
Tony snaps me back to 
bingeing the Sopranos,
and realizing that ‘how’ and ‘why’
are probably more involved, 
and will have to wait, 
until the next commercial.