Parchman Prison
By Elvis Alves
Nine miles from Tutwiler, MS, 2017
Built to last, hold bodies as a hole that runs
to infinity and back. Black gold never sold.
Time was never enough until time stops in here and you
are surrounded by selves without direction to go beyond
a state of degeneration. Authorized penetration of body, mind,
and soul. Nothing has ever been good to the person
behind your doors. Nothing comes out alive. A refuse that society
does not want back. A thing unlike other things. The bottom of a
swamp built beneath a swamp. You get what you want
except for freedom because it comes with a price. Your body, mind,
and soul. All that is glued together, the mind breaks from. All that the
mind breaks from is glued together. We stick together like glue. We fight
for breath. A taste of air. A taste of anything that does not remind us
of the years a judge wrote on paper, sealed our destiny, and shut us up here.
Source: Poetry (February 2021)