sightseeing

To know prison is to know a world too small to hold love’s absence. // Kelly Rose Pflug-Back, For T

prison is a stillborn
two small grey hands, fists
that’ll never move nor open

i have known many hands
too small to hold love’s absence
 
 
and there is a difference
between the absence that makes
the child reach out and cry

and the absence that is
long accepted
 
 
wail and be moved all you want
i know a great many places filled
with a great many men still

and some walk the halls
taking pride in this

thirty-four men per box built for two

all of them efficiently quiet
as the sounds of your rages and of your open hands
coming together in prayer walk the halls loudly, loved