This is Jazz the Poet with “The Awakening”.
Our society is infested with vicious killers,
Stick-up men, hustlers and drug dealers,
Elevating crime to all-time highs.
Every 30 seconds someone dies.
Teenagers tow Uzis, semi automatics, and glocks.
Candle-lit memorials on every other block,
Family and loved ones drowning in tears,
Elderly neighbors living in fear.
Community leaders horrified and upset.
Still, youngsters take lives with no regret,
Not until FBI detectives step in,
Sentencing men to state and federal pens,
Then shackle and chain
And under control of prosecutors,
Judges and Board of Parole.
Under watchful eyes of racist COs,
Consequences of the lifestyle they chose.
Many men never regain freedom again.
Methodically, prison makes slaves of men.
The isolation and separation from family
Causes most men to lose their sanity.
Others won’t care about what you’re going through
Since overwhelmed with problems too.
This isn’t just a combination of words,
Fictionalized stories, or stuff I heard.
I shot a man, now the bullets killing me
Through years of misery and captivity.
So, I advise all you wannabe crooks: trade your guns in,
Buy some books,
Invest yourself in a college degree
Before becoming a corpse at some cemetery or
Ending up in a cell just like me.
That was Jazz the Poet with “The Awakening,” from FCI McKean at Bradford, Pennsylvania. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
