There is something morbid
About the bright orange jumpers
Worn by inmates
Like fluorescent blood
Smeared over the remains
Of a crime scene
Sins annulled
By concealment
If only color could
Illuminate
The darkness within
*
When I was a child
I went to the first
Of many funerals
My uncle came wearing
His shocking veneer
Like a Chinese paper lantern
He came with armed guards
And shades of violence
Reflected in heavy chains
*
If only he’d had a mask
So I wouldn’t have seen
His bladed grin
Or his face laid out
In merciless lines
He’d raped a 16 year old girl
Unmoved
By the act of defilement
He stood proud
*
My father pushed me
In his direction
I tripped forward
In compulsory greeting
The officers’ hands
On the hilts
Of concealed weapons
As he wrapped
The chains around
My reticent frame
*
I became cadaverous in his arms
Ponderous and mute
Not even a whispered breath
I don’t remember his words
For the pulse
Of my rampant heart
Only the choked sobs of relief
When, under threat,
He released
*
true story
mindlovemisery 
