How is it in the land of the free
And home of the brave America chooses 
To spend %47,000 a year to incarcerate someone 
And less than $12,000 a year to educate a child?

No trials by jury or extenuating circumstances
in this America. 
No safe schools, strong families
or even clean air, water and food
for the Children of Poverty, 
doomed at birth by the 
​school to prison pipeline. 

Never having been in prison, the judge sits on the bench, 
a political product whose job it is
to maintain the status quo no matter the costs 
​to humanity. 

Lining their pockets on the 
Tragedies of the poor, 
The hurt people who hurt others, 
The Thrownaway People existing 
off the radar in the nightmare of 
Shadow America while those 
who are supposed to defend them drive around 
in Beemers and Mercedes, grabbing all they can 
​of the American Dream

On a planet consumed by toxic masculinity, 
politicians' hunger for power
makes them act en masse 
to lock up and throw away the keys for 
poor people who probably never voted. 
None, including judges and lawyers, 
Have ever spent even on day in the 
​House of Corrections. 

Scrutinizing necklines, 
fretting over hemlines, 
the prison visiting room Sex Police 
pounce on any signs of heterosexuality 
while totally ignoring homosexuality 
and rape. 

Visiting room gendarmes
snatch wigs from grandmothers' heads, 
peek into infants' diapers
searching for contraband while the rest of us watch, 
simmering with silent rage
at our shared humiliation. 

Sent away as a child, 
nurtured on rape and violence, 
shaped by daily psychological torture
by guards raised on hatred and racism, 
abandoned as hopeless, the child learns
well how to fight to the death, a summa cum laude
graduate from the College for Criminals. 

From the narrow slit they call a window, 
he watches geese waddling in committed pairs, 
pigeons soaring over gun turrets and high walls, 
flowers blooming against those walls in a 
blaze of vibrant color in this place of Death, 
while he waits and waits and waits 
​on Death Row. 

Public outrage at TSA inspectors, 
patting down grandmothers, children 
and especially anyone with dark skin 
or wearing a turban, all in the name of 
Homeland Security. 

Did they get their training by the 
​Department of Corrections?