Cell Door Magazine - A Prisoner's Lamanet by Gary Jackson

A PRISONER'S LAMENT

You say my writing is sad: no wonder;

My entire world does span

concrete walls, and sorrow,

The suffering of my fellow man.

I write for all the prisoners,

alone and forgot,

for them to read when troubled.

Myself, I share their lot.

The dreams that I hope upon, and die,

another man will own;

He shall taste the pleasures that I

will not, and have not known.

But I will stay where we are hid,

those that you have forgot,

I'll walk your halls of terror

And die in your lonely spot.

A man prone and haggard,

Humanity held tightly-furled;

Day after day I am staggered

By your freaked-out mixed-up world!