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Tapwater Coffee

They took away our coffee pots; You know the type: Big forty-cup, with chrome, The kind you’d never use at home. They said a weapon Potentially lurked there, Were it heaved or water thrown. More

The Lie

You want to know,Would I kill a child,staring with innocent eyes,the embodiment of defenselessness?I’d murder man, woman, or child,no difference to me.Hate makes no distinction.Not because I’m bitterbeing here… More

Strip Search

William Miller88A043 B-5-26Box BDannemora, NY 12929Strip SearchI am standing nudeto the leftof a half open windowin the middle of Octoberand the cool airchills melike an artificial kiss.I am being… More

A Man Is Missing

A man is missing, he’s been taken away;Where is he gone and what did he say.Where did they take him and did they say why;As he was leaving I… More

Hideous Hideaway

On the floor in the corner,urine marinated cigarette butts.The smell of stale sweat and stale smoke.A hastily shredded letter in the toilet.Soap scum around the sink.Dried razor hairs and… More

numbers game

numbers gameOn May5,1988, CDC #60840,1 of California Medical Facility blues and formerly1 of1700 Northern Reception Center greens, awoke, lifted his head off his6318L, eased from between the2 white sheets… More

Sonnet—To The Moon

Sonnet—To The MoonIn temperance and faith hast thou for yearsWatched o’er me. Thou hast smiled whene’er I gainedSmall, human gains and bitterly wept tearsOf light to save me when… More

Writer and Editor Detained

International PEN is seriously concerned for the welfare of Tibetan writer and editor Tashi Rabten (pen name: Te’urang), who was reportedly arrested on July 27, 2009. PEN fears that… More