I taught Creative Writing, Poetry and ESL for a while to inmates in several federal prisons. While I like to believe my efforts touched and helped my students, I was the recipient of a very eye opening education. I came away from the experience with several new poems, material for more short stories, and a decidedly different outlook. Here is one of several poems I wrote from an
insider's view point. If it frightens you... good! Be sure to like, link and comment.
Peace and love,
BJ
Outside The Wire
BJ
Neblett
©
2007, 2014
Outside
the wire
Sun
shines warmer
Wind
blows cooler
Air
smells fresher
Life
tastes sweeter
Outside
the wire
Rivers
sing
Flowers
dance
Children
wish
Mothers
pray
Beyond
the wire
A
blood red sun
crosshatched
with chain link
and
razor wire
surrenders
to an indifferent world
while
a bloodied fourteen year old
pot
marked with scars and tracks
and
tags and tears
surrenders
to the blue crush
of
cold steel and sequestered dreams.
Beyond the wire
idealism
is the commodity
compassion
the cost
Folsom
Huntsville
Attica
Eastern
State
Dachau
Inside
the wire
Smiles
are painted
Eyes
are tainted
Minds
are gelid
Hearts
are hardened
Inside
the wire
the
velvet carpet of night
swallows
Sodom’s towers
retching
out filth
and
waste
mean
streets and mean thoughts
a
ribbon of highway
a
smugglers agenda
life
exists between
the
ticks of the clock
the
beats of the heart
in
the darkness of souls
in
the shadows of reality
Beyond
the wire
amidst
the myopic madden masses
the
blind man leads
Jail
Prison
Lock
up
Slammer
Death
camp
Outside
the wire
Birds
sing
Grass
grows
Bees
sting
Snowflakes kiss
