The poem is a first-person narrative from the diary of a person with paranoid schizophrenia, the character complains of persecution from "the old woman in the room above" who "has put an electric suction cup on the floor..." "the waitress says it was salt, but I know arsenic when it's put before me..." and many more horrors.
The poem depicts a person experiencing paranoia and delusions, believing they are being targeted by unseen forces.