The Ballad of Denver Gaol

So little is known
much less is seen
Of what turns the wheel
of a blind machine

The causal plane and logic's rules
do ill-explain with faulty tools
The cause of pain and acts of fools

So....

In this context I've returned
to Denver Gaol,
"Live and Learn," they say
But each of us has made the choice
to crash and burn is his own way

They say we chose this
maybe so
But platitudes like
"just say no"
Do not excuse, will not suffice,

to justify
The State and City's War on Vice

The trial truly takes place here
and not in Honorable Courts of Law
Guilt is assumed, and men consumed
once past the Gaol's hungry maw

Is not the woman left alone
with full burden of house and home
Imprisoned like her inmate mate
and punished by the blinded state?

Some will get out,
they will be back
Out on the corner selling crack
or heroin and powdered coke
Some only weed will sell and smoke

It matters not we just had fun
they treat it like it's Murder One
We're all the same, one hundred men,
ten women headed for the pen

Madness is fomented thus
in cuffs and chains we board the bus
To court and back as seasons change
from heat to rain to snow to sun
together all the gray days run

The Sherriff only slams the door
while politicians just ignore
The ever-growing social cost
when minds and lives and souls are lost

The only true escape is found
when after midnight silence falls
And one can travel in one's dreams
to places far beyond the walls

The dreams will end as all things must
with burning wings the sleeper sprawls
Into the smell of iron and dust
at four AM the jailer calls.

The slow day dawns
The sleeper yawns
The porter brings the morning swill
of rubber eggs and cold potatoes
weak black coffee meant to fill

We wait each say to hear the sound
of "Pack it up!" -you're prison bound
To head back home to walk the yard
the big house isn't quite as hard
as county time inside the Gaol
in which we rot as systems fail

-With Respect and Love for the life and work of Oscar Wilde