IN A SOUTHERN JAIL
urine stink blasts
as our team hurries in
lungs suck in
swollen acid smell
voices of rapists
addicts murderers thieves
crash over my head
prostitutes hair-dyed
black-satin-tight wise eyes
ensure each girl in their cell
has Kotex water
handed by team
I reach through low bars
to solitary lying
face-down in shit
groping for clean water
no escaping my bars
shake them stretch to
prisoner on inside
margins break
thrust water bottle
it squirts joined laughter
top floor single male
in far left cell … lost loco
crying for kid
take a name phone number
he says shouldn't be here
illegal to know to note
pocket memo fast
yells ricochet walls rasp iron bars
rattle on concrete stairs metal rails
prisoners from long ago shout
from burial in these walls
I served two hours
my feet still print that dirt
my voice murmurs under shouting
while thieves steal pride
feed their sexy laughter
God walked through here once
mark of his cross
made a channel in concrete
for piss to flow out