Prison Poems
Four poems written by people incarcerated in a county jail in the Northeast United States
No Point in the Joint
Rigidity
Morbidity
Defeat
Repeat
Muster bluster
Rougher, tougher
Loud not proud
Rejecting
Projecting
Humiliated
Debilitated
Blaming
Complaining
Woe is me
Watch TV
Bored
Hoard
Scored!
Card games
Last names
Waste life
Taste strife
It don’t matter
Growing fatter
Eating
Cheating
Creeping
Sleeping
There’s no point
In the joint
It’s OK Inside
Wandering
Pondering
Tensive
Pensive
Hiding
Abiding
Both free and not free
Mind-body duality
Then just here free
A singular reality
Fenced in
Tensed in
Filter out
Focus in
Inside it’s OK
Night is day
A Poem About a Giant Watchful Slinky
Do not think about the Giant Watchful Slinky encircling you.
Pay it no attention.
How much did a slinky that big cost?
Especially one covered with sharp pointy spikes?
Don’t ask.
Look away.
A Fuzzy Sunrise
A fuzzy sunrise
Like the skin of a peach
I guess the sun is tired this morning
From thinking up all those brilliant colors yesterday
Some days I have spasmodic creativity
Hard to keep up with ideas
Other days a sinking in
A fuzziness
The sun is giving me permission to be fuzzy
Thanks for reading. More to come. Here is some reading on the prison abolition movement: the Marshall Project.
