A collection by Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall
Negotiating Toilet Paper
The escort carried three rolls of toilet paper
As she walked me to the classroom area
One each for Dorm A, Dorm B, and the guards
Some fellows walked casually along the path
“And you guys know how to walk single-file”
“Yes, ma’am”
“Yes, ma’am”
“Sure thing, ma’am”
And thus in silence they formed that single-file
“One roll of toilet paper per prisoner per week
Sometimes it’s just not enough,” she said
“We had a meeting on it; I told the guys
Sometimes administration just doesn’t get it”
Dignity, like treaties, can be broken
In many ways
A Fugitive in His Haunted Night
A police car parked in front of the house
They say there’s a fugitive in the woods
Bailed out of his truck on a county road
Abandoning his girlfriend to be nabbed
Well, poor man, he’s lost his truck and his girl
And gained mosquitoes, snakes, coyotes, heat
A fading MePhone signal, rain, rot, mud
And another three years in a white cotton suit
Why?
Perhaps, like many another poor soul
He lost his way while searching for elusive Truth
Prisoners Working in the Early Morning Rain
We have all worked in the rain – building fences
Getting up the cows for milking twice a day
Sloshing through the muck to make deliveries
And usually with some choice in the matter
Prisoners have choices too – cells or a work detail
In designer costumes with horizontal stripes
Not much of a choice, but the work is needful and good
Picking up the litter of freedom and patching the road
Through the wipers I wave. They wave back. Rain
We have all passed by our fellow man in the rain
The Boy in White
He paused in the sun, unsure where to go
His uniform was new and neatly pressed
He carried a new blue mattress and two plastic bags
Containing his prison issue for the next three years
No guards were near so I talked with him
He told me his story; it might be true
I didn’t ask him, but he freely spoke
And then
Authority told me to move. I wished him well
He was paused in life, unsure what to do
A frightened teenager in his new prison whites
LogoSophia Magazine 