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 bitter
being here in prison.
Not because they have me
treating the man sharing my cell
like a woman.
I understand,
these things made me an animal
and animals should be locked up.
I’m not mad, because
I know it’s not personal.
I was six
Mama looked into my eyes
“Listen baby, the White Man is the devil
the police is the devil,
you say nothing to them
you answer none of their questions,
they evil and they gonna get you.”
I was eight when the devils came
asking about Mama and Papa.
“I don’t know nothin, now get out.”
The devils looked me right in the eye
“Hey boy, was your Papa home last night?”
“Don’t say nothin to them devils child!”
I was scared.
The devils took me.
All the way to the station
I could hear Mama screaming
“Don’t take my baby from me.”
Never heard Mama beg before
I cried
They put me in a big empty room,
a big metal chair,
handcuffs, bars, cold,
and three devils.
They brought me candy, sodas, and hamburgers.
They brought me anything I wanted.
Mama never warned me
Devils could act like angels
when they wanted to.
“Was your Papa home last night?”
“We want to help him.”
I believed them
as I ate my hamburger
my voice said “No.”
When I got home
Mama wasn’t crying
she ain’t asked me nothin
I didn’t say nothin
But she knew.
Papa never came home
We’d visit him in prison
he never said nothin
But he knew.
Papa gone
Mama had to work
doing what she knew how
She never smiled
Papa never smiled
Only the tricks smiled.
Why did the devils use me
They must have known
How I would feel every time
Mama turned a trick
They didn’t need me
to kill my family.
That’s why we’re different,
the devil likes to kill people
and keep them alive
so they can hate each other
and themselves.
When I leave here
I’ll do what the devils taught me,
I’ll kill
But I won’t be like them,
the people I kill
will only have to die once.
They won’t have to die
everytime they look into the eyes
of their faggot convict father
or the glassy eyes
of their strung out flesh peddling mother.
Eyes I gave them
when the devil got me to lie
because I knew that’s what they wanted to hear
and I wanted another hamburger.