GRAY WORLD

Written following a visit to a friend
incarcerated in a State Prison in Indiana.

No color here,
       Except a few small pansies and petunias,
              blooming outside the entrance door.
It’s a gray world:
       Gray concrete
       Gray concertina wire
       Gray smoked glass doors
       Gray lockers, tables and X-ray scanners
       Gray-blue molded plastic chairs
       Gray expressionless faces above navy-blue power suits
       Gray distrust, despair and buried rebellion
       Gray-brown garb blotting out personal hues
       Graying temples of inmates awaiting the slow passage of time
       Gray disappointment in faces of wives, children and parents
       Crystal-gray tears and muddy-gray smiles.
       Fiery-gray pasts and murky gray futures confined in this
       Monotonous gray present.
Can a spark from the world of color outside prevent
              Suffocation of the spirit
       Of these who must live in this gray world?

6/2/07 - mshr

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