Chilled gusts slice through razor wire
creeping around the window's edge
like ants teeming over breadcrumbs.
Rats intrepidly stalk the tier sniffing
remnants of tonight's repast. I pay them
no heed. I seek solace in my Qu'ran,
but cacophonous shouts ripped from
disquieting slumbers intrude my mood.
I pace my six by nine enclosure:
home for eight years, three months, and
fourteen days. A numbing monotony
asphyxiating my dreams. I have counted
every spot of flaked paint on the wall
and have come to know the sound of
each guard's swaggering gait but I don't
know the sound of a lover--
kissing goodnight.
Beauty
I hold on to the playground laughter
and try to believe these tiny seeds
won't be choked by briars and thorns before
they have a chance to blossom. A rain-marred
sunny day muddies the path where
thunder sounds like an SKS. A wake quiets
the rising tide until the procession passes by.
Homies dressed in their best, creased khakis
and button-down Pendletons, stand by somberly
as a mother buries her eldest while crying
over the loss of her other two: 16-year-old
twins facing life for the payback. My trigger finger
itches as I hug her, too ashamed for once
to look in her eyes. She was like a mother
to me too; her welfare home welcoming me
whenever I had to flee the heavy hand
of momma's new boyfriend of the week. By fifteen,
I was banged out and pistol happy,
and hands not noticably lighter in the Wilson house.
Now I'm 25, fresh out after walking nine,
and trying to acclimate myself to a society
that never wanted me. Does Barack have an answer for this?
My church-going momma who married a
God-fearing man six years ago, seems to think
so. I see hope in her beautific eyes
as preaches the Word to me through sublime actions,
without having to utter a sound. And somewhow,
I feel a slight stirring in me, too, as I
hold on to the playground laughter and try to believe
these tiny seeds won't be choked by briars and thorns
before they have a chance to blossom.
Shaka Washington III received an Honorable Mention in the 2009 PEN American Poetry Writing Contest for "Pieces of a Dream." He also won Honorable Mention in PEN's 2007 contest. His work has appeared in DanaLiterary.org, Timbooktu.com, Struggle and PoeticsNoire.
