Thursday, May 23, 2019

What’s really behind those bars and walls?


Reaching through the Cracks:  Connecting Incarcerated Persons with Loved Ones through Story


Despite the conventional concerns about working with incarcerated individuals,
I can happily report that I have never experienced any of those fears, nor any of those situations which one may
 consider hazardous to one’s health.  I’ve worked behind these bars for many years now, and this is what I find
every time:

I find people who have been thrown away,
Dismissed, discarded, and
Disposable.


I find people who have suffered trauma…
By a random act of violence, by the world they were born into,
By family action, or inaction.


Catastrophe due to addiction, mental illness, or both,
Wreaking havoc, one person at a time,
One soul at a time, five minutes at a time.


I find the power hungry and the apathetic,
The burned out and the burned
Some there for a paycheck, some for a payback.


I find human souls that have been caged, both willingly and unwillingly,
For years at a time, or perhaps a lifetime,
Devoid of hope because they are disposable.


I thought disposable described diapers.








© Beth Ohlsson, 2019

All rights reserved


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