(a poem found in this article: Texas executes mentally impaired inmate)

Alternative Means

After the European Union banned 
the export               last year 
of the barbituric acids regularly 
used in a three-drug, three-drug, three-drug 
cocktail favored by American 
prisons, officials 
in the States were forced to 
find                       alternative means 
of executing 
their 
inmates. 
In september, authorities in Florida (land 
of sweetly juicely Disneyly illusion)
used pentobarbital to kill 
a death row inmate, despite pleas 
from the drug’s manufacturer that demanded 
otherwise.

By switching 
to a single dose of 
Nembutal – the product name of pentobarbital – Mr. 
Hearn’s execution cost 
the state $1,286 and 86, 86, 86 cents (who in the executioner’s
realm calculates the exact cents?)
instead of the $84
.55 
for a three-drug three-drug three-drug
cocktail.