A poem for the imprisoned. A manifesto for liberation.

Sitting across from a prison advocate, and I get up off my seat,
Say goodbye and out the door, feeling an intense heat,
A disgust in the normalcy of keeping people in pain,
With disconnected opinions about victims automatically to blame.
This person seems not to realise that this fucked up world came before them,
Conditions creating criminals affecting not if but when,
The inevitability of the oppressed, illustrating oppression,
Whilst society chases control & money beyond healthy obsession,
Crime is a notion that serves the grossly powerful,
Private property means that some kids go with bellies unfull.
Violation is the real issue that we could concentrate on.
A world able, but not meeting needs, is the true con.

Only if we began to take each other as another part of ourselves,
We could fill the lack mentality that is creating all this hell,
It starts with ‘the othered’ inside each one of us,
Reclaiming our bad & wrongness is an absolute must.
A desire for inner peace would reflect on the outside,
New circumstances of acceptance, & people not forced to hide.
Opening up the prisons obviously stirs a deep fear,
But what if a complete system change was not that far, but near?
Communities radically committed to understanding one another,
Every aspiration important with no shame to push or cover.

Violators need help, we need this shift in perspective,
Freedom to consider our lives, intersecting our collectives.
I walk down the street and contemplate my convictions,
And hope that every prison advocate remembers the distinctions,
Between a boundary set, simply being honoured or not,
Or a separated mindset, which leads to the vulnerable getting caught,
Into a downward spiral, in which all are connected,
Mental health means safety, and not egos falsely protected.
I dedicate this poem to any abolition thinker who may sit on this fence,
And offer the belief in oneness* to see life with a new lens. 


*Oneness in my understanding, is the concept that we are all interconnected from one energy source, consciousness.