Dec
26
2010
Sunday Poem: Observations at a Poetry Reading, Women’s Detention Center
(OBSERVATIONS AT A POETRY READING, WOMEN’S DETENTION CENTER, SUMMER ’75)
by Michelle Parkerson
Bitch Butch Black
but
women all
Ladies in waiting
for sentences or
paroles
Look through bars for eyesSkepticism as a way of life
Crime as survival
Prison as the payback
Hard knocks make hard hearts that don’t beat to artLight, angels of mercy
poets
come to read you free
confront a wall of blank stares
that know too well do-good hasteThe griots call: Do our words touch you?
The women’s response: Do you care?