The Arkansas Prison System

Is like a lyric poem

with seven basic themes

first the cottonpicker

dragging behind it a wagon of testicles

a pair of pliers which can fill in

for a cross in a pinch

then there is the warm pond

between the maiden’s thighs

next we have some friends

of yours and mine

who shall be with us always

Pablo the artist

the pubis of the moon

Pablo the cellist

panther of silence

Pablo the poet

the point of no return

and in case of emergency

the seventh and final theme

of this systematic poem

is the systematic way

death undresses in front of you

Source: Smoking Grapevine (Unpublished Collection)