51 8
AMEETING
Unshaven men
throw their arms around each other
How's our cell doing
Who's sleeping on my plank now
A prison life story torn in two
comes together for a moment
Your first cell becomes
like a native land abandoned
a childhood sentimentalized
THE PRISONERS' WALK
An uneven whiteness
banded by a moving
chain
whose breaking and closing
speeding up and slowing down
swelling and thinning
is a separate journey
for each part of that chain
shuffiing limping trotting
passing aboutfacing
a persistent striving
always in the same place
a closed circle
going nowhere
NOTESSMUGGLEDTOANDFROMPruSON
a chalk circle a guarded border
between your anguish and mine
the line dividing
PARTISAN REVIEW
