Explication of Etheridge Knights' "Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane"

Explication of Poem -
Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane -Etheridge Knight
This poem is a narrative tale about the members of a prison waiting to find out how the lobotomy of the toughest prisoner, “Hard Rock” has gone, and subsequently about how the lobotomy causes Hard Rock to lose his hero status in the emotional reaction of despair the other prisoners exhibit. The speaker is another prisoner, talking for the group of other prisoners who were more physically unable and/or less courageous then “Hard Rock”. He is talking as if he is telling a story to someone unfamiliar with the prison system/an outsider to the situation. The speaker has a mix of nostalgia and despair in his voice and his attitude toward the poems subject/Hard Rock is one of pity--both for himself and the other prisoners. The voice is somewhat reliable for his own feelings but the other prisoners may not share his opinion on the lobotomy, though the events seem straight forward if the emotions aren’t. The whole last paragraph of the poem reaffirms this idea. The freestyle of the poem allows a conforming of the form to whatever is necessary for the momentary emotion of each line. The poem develops in a way where the audience is more in on whats going to happen then the people within the story are made to have, a successful recreating of an event without giving oneself underserved credit of more knowledge then one actually had when the events were occurring. It moves from curiosity/wonderment at whether they really could break such a tough dude with one procedure or if they were bluffing and maybe there wasn’t anything that bad that could happen if they pushed as far as Hard Rock--to despair at finding out there was a way to steal the life out someone too dangerous or aggressive or a problem or loud or the slightest bit annoying, and to crushedness from realizing their dreams are hopeless.
There are about 42 sentences in the poem, mainly complicated, verb-nouns seem normal, some enjambement, some end stopped lines, title briefly explains situation going on
There is definitely colloquial prison language in the poem, know the meanings of all of them, no allusions I see, mood/attitude associated=fear of lobotomy/wonder at the possible even more inhumane uses lobotomy can be put to.. The imagery of how tough Hard Rock was before the lobotomy to how long it took him to remember his name/his passivity afterwards largely contributed to the sound of the poem.
Not too much rhyming/irregular occurrence, the effect of this as well as the tonal effect of the rhythm here adds to the authentic feeling,
The poem creates a contemplative mood and is achieved by listing surface events that have emotions behind them.