Artifact March 2010

Narrow Cells

By: Dan Hettmannsperger III

(Written in the Stockton County Jail, Summer 2005)

I know that somewhere
you are out there, Shirley.
That your love is not just
a memory born from
the desperate dreams
of a caged poet.

But in the confines
of this steel grey inferno
it is beyond belief
that there is love anywhere,
that outside millions
go on with their lives
while we endure the sad passing
of the hours
only because we have nothing
better
to do...

There can be no dignity
when men and women
are tagged like dogs, caged
like pets unloved.

They turn us into animals
then dare to set us free
upon an unsuspecting world...