Eye On Life Magazine

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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

-- Joanna M. Weston