The Secret Life of Chains

HandPoet
Psycho
Champ
Stilo
The names they go by
The dictionary of prison

I always doubted the veracity of Malcolm X
when he claimed
to have memorized
the dictionary
until I passed through the wire

Just visiting
changes you
Yes, it does
You get stuck in time
with no help out
except becoming an animal
or torquing your brain with impossible problems
Ones that will take you
a sustained year or
two or
ten

People don't know

You have to lash yourself to the mast
while the sirens sing
and all you want to do is throw yourself
onto the rocks for the relief of it

But you can't
so you scream
and keep the words coming
squeezing them out
of the stone
that is the lock-box
of your secrets.