Short Inmate Poems

I am innocent the inmate said
the brothers shook hands on it
both men falsely accused...

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Victim of format,
prisoner of rhyme

Inmate of vision
—exile sublime

(Monmartre France: April, 1978)...

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A prisoner of the truth
  sole inmate of denial

Serving time falsely promised
  —paroled in cold exile

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2014)...

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Prisoner of the
cursed phrase
shackled by the terms
Sentenced with each damning
breath
— inmate of what’s heard 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024) 
...

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On death row I was somewhat surprised,
once an inmate had been tranquilized,
that when facing death,
and a very last breath,
the lethal needle must be sterilized....

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 his plea
                  for clemency
           has fallen on deaf ears - 
  a death row inmate walks to the
                       gallows...

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Words apprehend
  a willing prisoner
    —verse to fly between the bars

The latest inmate 
  with breath surrendered
    —an incarcerated bard

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)...

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Always,
Do I love you.
Forever, I’ll be there.
Holding you in a tight embrace,
Everlastingly clutching you with care.
As far apart as we may be,
Our souls will stay intertwined.
As one we’ll be,
Always....

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recklessness attacks ego
fury attacks soul
adrenaline attacks viscera
middle digit attacks upward
foot attacks accelerator
vehicle attacks vehicle
hand attacks pistol
lead attacks flesh
remorse attacks fury
gavel attacks sound block
inmate attacks inmate...

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If someone calls you a plonker, plonk them on their bean
They're not being nice so my advice, mess em up, make a scene
But be sure to clean up the blood
Learned this from my British bud
Else you'll be involved with a fellow inmate, a ex-marine named Jean...

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Indelible Ink 

Circa 1941 to 1943

A painful timely reminder

Lest we never forget

The inhumanity of man

Where you're only crime was to be born

Category A

Jewish male

Nazi death camp inmate 

No A-15510

1 of the few

Not the many

Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors

Yad Veshem...

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Now you are silence
Wild your horses
remove the bridle
and see
eternity will be born out of you
 
you would know
time is a slaughtering knife
fight this enemy with a scythe
silence the storms
the lightning nights
 
Come to me
my queen
I am the inmate of your secrets
 
The words are yet to come....

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Into the damp room things creep.
So, in it no one should sleep,
Young girls asked to do so weep,
Ruth awake all night: scared heap,
Thrice did fearfully leap,
A better room: an open jeep.

Into the vileroeom snakes slid:
Two short black ones there soon hid!
You don't ask "what inmate did."
Won't you room farewell bid?...

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With a wheelbarrow full of manure 
For my strawberry patch,
Pushing past an asylum
I heard the gate latch,
An inmate emerged and said
What you got there?
I said it's to put on my strawberries 
So they're not so bare.
He said, gee whizz mate,
You should come inside,
When they serve our strawberries
They put cream on the side....

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convict
                                discouraged, depressed,
                      mudslinging, gossiping, exaggerating,
                         convict, inmate, teacher, father
                             loving, uplifting, inspiring
                                 innocent, exonerated
                                             Daddy...

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When describing bad behavior 
Or even a law breaker

The worst epithet humans think for those not admirable
Is to place on the miscreant a label of ANIMAL

He's an ANIMAL they'll squeal
As if animal describes an inmate from hell 

On this green earth after all the rantings and railings
Never was an animal who behaved with any human failings...

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the inmate won’t eat
because s/he is done
with life & uninterested
in continuing to live in a
world that has condemned
them to imprisonment
&
the warden threatens to
force-feed her/him 
because the warden
says he works for the
state that “represents
the people” 
&
it is they who have the
right to decide when
this wo/man dies & not
that individual
themselves....

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1.Midazolam injection.
2.Hydromorphone inj.
3.Sodium Barbital inj.
4.Sodium thiopental.
An anesthetic or sedative,followed by a drug to paralyze the inmate,and finally a drug to stop the heart.The one and two-drug protocols typically use an overdose of an anesthetic or sedative to cause death.These four Narcotics Chemicals are used to induce death.
Note.Death by gunfire or injection....

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37 years I've been held captive by her.
My sweet  of a saviour.
Seized,etched in my weary worn crib,
Both prisoner's
Where strange hands hold the key.

Her family appendages reach out to mine
In a tormented, mechanical embrace.

To be a fly, that loves a day. An hour. 

The tired worn threads hold secrets, seen things.
Seen little. 

For a brief moment the fly paused in its flight....

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Think of it as, a prison but with you as the one inmate.
Constantly fighting the  "badder" you. soon becomes too exhausting.

Beating yourself up over and over again.
To find out this entire time, you have been a free man.


So I sit in my cell, chained to my bed.
No need to run free.
I'll handle my own punishment.
Not what God intended but it's my only escape.
Not running just slowing down, so my soul can catch up to me....

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It’s another year
And with spring
The automatic sprinklers
Once again run like clockwork
Mesmerizing in the morning 
Making me feel like an inmate
In an insane asylum 
Or old folks home
Bound to view the world 
Through the screen
Of a window or TV 
Bound within while 
Merging without a world
Of vibrant greens
The hypnotic pulse
Of watered lawns
A metronome 
To ground my mind
Within the illusion 
Of time

(4/30/25)...

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Looks of poison,
blood runs cold,
misery in chains,
my life unfolds.

Years of torment,
trying to escape,
useless to try,
free inmate.

Control you take,
dominate the nest,
time to leave,
I must confess.

Enough of this,
can't take any more,
my butt is heading,
out that door....

After I,m gone,
and you sit alone,
think of the many,
nights you were stoned.

Time is running,
full speed ahead,
I have to live,
before I am dead.........

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Violence unalloyed.
I want you to hear
the noise, light and blast.

Shrouded inside,
a chandelier breaks
in splinters of hymns-
all enveloping. In the positional
vertigo, you hit the nail.
I call it quits, undating
a curve, an arch.

Incubation.
It was incomplete. They will parade
the victim naked, because she was
raped. Why did she let loose
the testosterones ?

Walking ferns and
wish bone.
The inmate wants nothing.
She has come to stay in dark
till the sun unrises.

Satish Verma...

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For:  Deputy Anderson / G.C.D.C.


I am a pro, she told me so,

That I’m a sneak, stuff has 2 go.

Said:  “I can’t help my knack 2 plan”,

Cuz I am “Queen Of Contraband”.


I try to be a good inmate,

The things I do, R not 4 hate.

I hope she know, I ‘m really not mad,

But being locked up, is so (F’n) sad.


I really try, to follow the rules,

Just that, in my mind, I must make jewels.

It keeps me real, to fool “THE MAN”,

Cuz I am “Queen Of Contraband”....

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The temperature is taking its high
Can a little sluggish and dizzy
Pupils are dilated head thrives
Alas to my surprise
Shows the awareness the of Wonder In Your Eyes

Mercy shown

In the prison your inmate a convict
Secured behind bars for all bad things you've done
You Mumble and you groan
Innocents has flown

A missionary comes in Witness
Tell me about the grace of God and his forgiveness
Lead you in Repentance prayer

Mercy shown

1/7/20
James Edward Lee Sr 2o10...

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