In These Times of Incarcerations – 3 Poems

For the Imprisoned

I want to gift all of this to you
the silence, the wind
the freedom of walking
 
I want to tuck each one
safely in the secret pockets
of your heart
 
to give them
in the way grandmothers
sneak coin or candy
in the hidden space
of palms


that way you will 
be certain
all of this
is yours
 
that all things
the earth offers
she offers them
to you

In These Times of Incarcerations

You travel across country
From nook to nook
Corner to corner
you walk on the feathers
Of birds, your heart beats 
In their song
Nothing can keep you still
Even the metal is ashamed
To hold you
The thick concrete humiliates
Itself by denying you 
the earth
You who are of this
earth, who like fleabanes
take over small cracks-
you surround us with beauty
You nourish us with
Love and make us better
I pity the fools
who keep you in prison
They do not know
your spirit is free
And it is everywhere.

It Was a Normal Day In The Nation

And prisons have taken over
and cast shadows upon the mustard
field we ran around as children/
where we once shared oranges and
imagined that was how freedom tasted/
where we found dreams and their
syllables of possibility hovering
in the atmosphere/ 
it does not seem that long ago when
we wrote wishes on papers and crafted
them into planes/ Now we take them 
to the streets and tear them into placards/
All over the country 
there are songs and prayers
Cursing the tyrant/ no more jails nor murder/
not while this anger is ours/ not while 
this longing is ours/ not while our hearts ache
for the coming of change.

All images by Käthe Kollwitz. Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945 was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including The Weavers and The Peasant War, depict the effects of poverty, hunger and war on the working class.