Poems from a prisoner inside Florida’s system.
REFLECTING
By Mario
These wasted years have been my biggest regrets,
Spent in prisons I’ll never forget.
Pondering, reminiscing about the things I’ve done;
The crying, laughing, hurt and the fun.
Now it’s just me with my hard driven guilt;
Inside these steel jungles I’ve allowed to be built.
Trapped in my body, wanting to run,
Back to my youth with it’s laughter and fun.
But the chase is over,
There’s no place to hide.
Everything is gone,
Including my wife.
It began with a lump on the side of her breast;
It grew, became huge, took my queens last breath.
We prayed, we fasted, remained faithful and strong;
While our 8 year old daughter had to care for her mom.
I screamed, yelled, sought my God’s grace;
But I’ve experienced this before…
“Objection your honor !”,
Once again, is sustained.
Pretending to be rugged, fast and so cool,
When actually lost like a blinded fool.
It’s time to give back this sentence of LIFE,
So I can fulfill the promise and take flowers to my wife.
What my future will hold, I really don’t know,
But the 20 years I’ve done
Are taking it’s toll.
I strive everyday in hopes of a new start
Pursuing the dreams I still hold deep in my heart.
I hope I can make it…
I at least have to try…
‘Cause I’m heading toward death —
And in this place…
I DON’T WANNA DIE !!!
UNTITLED
By Mario
Treat me like an animal, label me a savage.
‘Cause once upon a time,
I simply couldn’t manage.
Judge me ’til eternity and forgive me not,
Nail me to the cross and leave me to rot.
Beat me with the gavel,
And try taming me like a slave.
Are you above reproach
’cause now you claim you’re saved.
Twenty years in purgatory shackled
from wrist to feet.
Regardless the systems design,
I refuse to be beat.
I’ve crawled under most of life’s hurdles and not once have I bled.
But people look at you funny when they think you’re almost dead.
Optimism pouring out of me like luck,
I’ll never accept that I’m stuck,
What really hurts is that “MOST” of my fam have never given a fuck !!!! This isn’t a scar;
It’s a word crossed out on my chest.
This isn’t a bullet in my gut;
It’s the final period in a chapter of my life that just won’t seem to end.