Sentenced Words

Marilyn Buck

2005

A means
to mark time
messages
cryptically sent
to the world
outside

time
frag
mented
into contain
erized
lives
words navigate
through space
between bars and city blocks

verses puncture
mute screams
indict cruelty
refuse to conform
resist assassination
and create landscapes
that defy glassy-eyed darkness

July 1999 Revised 6/12/05

This poem appeared in
Corrections, 2002

Marilyn in DC jail 1988