Parole Board Farce
You’ve waited years to get parole and you can hardly wait
To finally reach your hard-earned goal and step outside that gate.
You see yourself put on new clothes and clear out all your stuff;
You make your peace with your old foes, you figure that’s enough.
And so comes time for your last hearing “I got this,” so you think;
There’s no more that you have a’fearing, at last you’re at the brink.
Just when you’re sure you’ve finally won your freedom wide at last
The chairman says, “Hey we’re not done, this guy’s still got some past.”
“Tell us about that thing you stole when you was just a kid;
Or what about the broken bowl you smashed and then you hid.”
“Tell us, please sir, are you so sure you will not reoffend?
How can you be so damned demure, admit your guilt! Attend!”
“I have been good for all these years I’ve followed all the rules
I’ve even stooped to kiss some rears and met some gun-armed fools.”
“If I have not paid for my sins what more am I to say?
For I have made all my amends there’s none left more to pay.”
“No, no! Old man, there’s still some life! Come on guards, lock him down!
And no he cannot kiss his wife, he’s much too tightly wound.”
And so I’m led back to my bunk amidst the chairman’s jeers,
To end my life a jailbird monk for the next ten-thousand-years.
This poem was written by Joy Johnson – Pearson on 13 February 2019. Document number: JOY 05
