Doin Time

[Mark A Becker]

Doin Time

I retired after nearly 40 years as a hack at the Red Onion
supermax. Pulled long shifts to send my boys to college,
have a nice house, and nice cars.  A lotta good that done.
My wife run off some 10 years ago with a frickin ex-con.

Then one of my boys died from an OD last year. The other
just finished an on-line degree in abnormal psychology
at Leavenworth.  He'll have the rest of his life
behind bars to figure out why he killed that woman.  

At night, when I get the dreams, I’m still walking the blocks,
doing night checks.  After 40 years, and including the dreams,
I figure I got a million hours doin time on the blocks. But, hell,
it was all good. The only really hard time I done was on the outside.

[dukealien]

Very well done.  The beat works, as well as picking up lower-class argot ("I done").  Very precise, too:  rape-murder, as opposed to rape or murder alone, would be federal - hence Leavenworth.

[P3t3rW1ll14m]

Damn good poem! It put me right in your shoes. The hard work did not necessarily pay off, but still working hard was better then the mess outside of the work.

[billy]

sometimes the hardest prison to live in is the one on the outside of the wall. i can connect with the piece Mark.