Most read ▸
Frank Marshall Davis
Through jail windows a new full moon is a round white door rendered useless by stout steel bars
Frogs see a new full moon as a luminous toadstool sprouting from the black floor of a pond
To the thief and the murderer it is a busy stoolpigeon tipping off cops and intended victims
To a young man in love the new full moon is a priceless pearl he would tear from the sky . . . set in a ring woven from sparkling stars . . . place on the finger of his sweetheart's hand
The new full moon is a beautiful woman . . . ageless . . . deathless . . . inaccessible . . . and infinitely mysteriously sad . . . who gazes in my window through a dark veil set with shimmering stars . . . the poet said
Every day she makes her way
from her place to mine, and
every day she has her say
to everyone standing in line
as I am patiently waiting, and
watching the reflection off her hair
that tears the rust off my heart.
Every day she hands out meds,
this Florence Nightingale of Jail
and every day I wait my turn
to see her lips part Giaconda smile
at not seeing me for a while,
says my name a little differently,
touches my hand a little longer,
drops the pill on my skin, and
breathes a deep friendly breath,
Our jail mentality has us
observing the fatted Geese
lining the courtyard walls.
Black and white sentinels, guards,
while my celly and I thought:
the freedom of birds, flights
out of here, past the glass.
Breezes, the speed of clouds.
In jail,
everything changes,
except the shame.
Along the jail fence
starlings hang on razor wire
stare at us.
Sun warms the wings
after flying near the jail
crimson razor wire.
I said when they handed me my diploma,
I said to myself I will be good
And wise and brave and helpful to others;
I said I will carry the Christian creed
Into the practice of medicine!
Somehow the world and the other doctors
Know what’s in your heart as soon as you make
This high-souled resolution.
And the way of it is they starve you out.
And no one comes to you but the poor.
And you find too late that being a doctor
Is just a way of making a living.
And when you are poor and have to carry
The Christian creed and wife and children
All on your back, it is too much!
That’s why I made the Elixir of Youth,