: Roxbury Correctional Book Club

I Poetry
American Journal arrives in a library cart
dog-eared to page 18 “the prisoner”
as if to start there in media res, dear
hayden: the [I] in me no longer lives

it vanished i confess the collective (we)
is no better; yes, walls here are gray
not green but know your poems sing — 
again, [I] does not exist, comrade. i do

: How to Become the Invisible Man

names must be on the list
but no one will visit today

including children over twelve.
friends dissipated first

: Quiet Before the Storm in the Dayroom

stainless steel tables with stop sign seats
hold dominoes, checkers, playing cards
alongside a group of old heads studying

not the bible but the quran for balance.
rippling keys from a manual typewriter
echo from cell 42 on the top tier — filing

: Unreliable Narrator

distractions ring apparent:
gate, iron, cement, gun, dog,

division by categorization — 
race is a factor manipulated