Friday, April 3, 2020

Now They are Imprisoned Twice - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

Now They are Imprisoned Twice

“It was very like living permanently in a large railway station”

-C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

We cannot volunteer in prison now
The grids and grills that shut the prisoners in
Now serve to shut most everyone else out
And bars now bar us from teaching each other

Ours is a transient camp, barracks and wire
Grey buses run, usually in the night
Men are shipped out, and others then arrive
And we never really get to know anyone

For now, not at all

But in the evening meetings, once a week
Connections are made, however tentative
Like casual conversations while waiting for a train
We are all being shipped somewhere, you know

Tonight

Prisoners half-asleep on the hard bus seats
May our inadequate prayers follow them

2 comments:

Verlie Burroughs said...

So sad. You are penning prolifically Lawrence! Good to see.

Lawrence Hall, HSG said...

Thanks!