Going Through Imprisonment

Imprisoned.

Stripped of all my worth possessions I hold dear,

With nothing to call my own…mine.

Left naked and bare to be branded

With a prison number and labeled like cattle,

Clothed with prisoner-made clothes,

Given a strict limit of linen

Lent to me and handed down from prisoner to prisoner.

Sometimes I wonder who last wore them,

These very clothes that cloth me now,

Fed just enough to live…today.

Not a calorie more as that´ll “spoil” me.

Told when to do what and how,

Never mind your rights

As you´re made to squat down naked and cough

Before a group of guards,

Degraded and dehumanized,

Humiliated and psychologically tortured,

Time and time again, relentlessly,

Till I´m no longer me but # F63367,

No longer my own entity but a condemned Southern Hispanic.

No longer ”free” but held captive in hell´s chambers,

No longer living, but a dead man amongst those still alive.

That is what imprisonment is,

That is what I´m struggling to survive.

When Will Solitary Confinement End?

I sit in Solitary Confinement,

Monitored and evaluated,

Psychologically tested,

Tortured in more ways than I care

to remember or burden you with,

With hopes I´d crack and beg,

Beg to be let out of this torturous place

And crack, losing the bit of sanity I have left

Like so many others before me and so many others

Yet to fall, fall prey to the prison´s administrators,

To their countless of tactical torturous games they play.

I am but one of a few hundred who still stand strong,

Fighting to survive, accumulating deep embedded scars

With each passing day, learning to be resilient to all

That´s thrown and piled up against me

In such a difficult, miserable place.

Lonely and deprived of so much I sit in Solitary Confinement.

Beyond desperate for a helping hand, for something,

Someone, for a movement, for human rights lawyers

And all the advocates out there to put an end

To this heinous practice of Solitary Confinement

And take me away from this place with my dignity intact.

I just hope it´s soon before many more fall prey

And lose themselves in this dungeon of hell and misery

That´s been in place for far too long.

What will it take before you realize that time is essential

To one´s sanity within these circumstances,

To one´s self-respect and humanity.

What will it take to end Solitary Confinement?