Just A Convict

By Antonio Smith

Bars on the windows

Broken Dreams

Tears out of the blue

Sometimes screams

Lockers too small

For what one needs

No courtesy

Just cons and greed

Slave labor

No law exists

World of the forgotten

We live in bliss

Inhumane treatment

Rejected food

Treated worse than animals

90% rude

The weak get a job

To hold face

How many felonies

Would build their case

Just say it’s all lies

That’ll do the trick

What am I

Just a CONVICT

Poetry Behind Bars

The following are poems written by individuals incarcerated in the Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California. Some of the authors are students of the poetry and drama class of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) put on by Agustin Lira and Patricia Wells Solórzano. We invite you to receive with open hearts and minds the poetry of Luis Villegas, Anthony Moreno and Antonio Smith.

Game Over

By Luis Villegas

Chess is not a game of chance but one of the mind and strategy.

Players on the board are black and white battling, what a tragedy.

Pawns must sacrifice themselves to save the glorious King.

Bishops move diagonally, Horses do “L’s,” and the Queen is oh so devastating.

You must always think three moves ahead to stay in the game.

One wrong move, “death,” with no one else but yourself is to blame.

Do you move to stay alive or is it just to win.

This life we live in a world of hatred, envy, and sin.

Choice to move your pieces carefully and with precision.

Lose your life as well as your soul due to a bad decision.

Be aware; think wisely for the future is untold.

Your mind, soul, or body, which is first to be sold.

The Perfect Cure

By Anthony Moreno

A cure, an antidote that is so pure, that will make a person unique to the personality for sure.

The pain that a person can endure, can make a person turn cold, from inside out, a frozen heart, and a frozen conscious, lost in this world without any sense. Describing the writing on the wall, the words that come out are without flaw.

Humility is shown with every word that is spoken, created is the antidote, that can touch the heart that has been broken, through sunny days and stormy weathers, it was shattered into pieces and put back together, searching for the cure that is so pure. So, you can cure the pain that has been given, but it’s within…

Within your heart and the perfect cure is forgiveness…

Forgiveness from your soul, that’s pure from your heart, creates humbleness.