"Five Times Daily, They Count Us As Cattle"

“everybody up!
count time! count time! count time!”

an officer walks the dorm, jiggling cell doors
making sure we’re locked in, like valuables in a store
if i’m sleeping, they knock, just to see me move
the most sleep i ever get is only an hour or two

“count time! count time! count time!”

five times daily, they count us as cattle
on a plantation of pain, reminiscent of chattel
at times, a count can last up to an hour
once, it took three, when walt died near the shower
they rolled him out stiff, his life/​hope drained
i wondered if he ever worried about dying in a cage

“count time! count time! count time!”

i used to loathe count time; i hated being alone
isolated with problems for which i never atoned
instead of getting high or wasting away the day
i had to confront my past and my future gone astray

“count time! count time! count time!”

i got used to the count after years in a cell
if i have to be locked in, it doesn’t have to be hell
sometimes i meditate, sometimes i write
sometimes i count my accomplishments in life

“count time! count time! count time!”

i found a melody in stillness, one i’ll try to describe
it’s a tempo of silence with decrescendoing sighs
when the prison settles down and shouts of ignorance cease
my spirit eases slowly into a cadence of peace
count

today, i read a judgment from the bench
toward a teen who shot little kids without a flinch.
the judge tipped his glasses, then pointed a finger
to say, ​“i hope those inmates put you through the wringer.”
now, if i had been present, which i was not,
i might have taken the floor and forced the judge to stop,
saying, ​“pardon me, i have some questions, if i may?
why is violence appropriate only when you say?
or, how can you give someone five hundred years
in hopes his blood will somehow cleanse tears?
as if judgment and violence share a comradery
and this notion of justice proves no hypocrisy,
sending people to prison supposedly for correction
then reveling when they avenge, for you, in dereliction.
is this the intention of our judicial section,
to employ incarceration as a diabolical weapon?
injustice created a system with no feeling.
since it doesn’t work, why not try healing?
because if physical pain is an appropriate remedy,
you might as well give every felon the death penalty.”
appropriate violence