The Last Act of Defiance

The prison system, inherently unjust and inhumane

Is the ultimate expression of injustice

And inhumanity in the society at large.

Those of us on the outside do not like

To think of wardens and guards as our surrogates, yet they are.

And they are intimately locked in a deadly embrace

With their human captives behind prison walls.

By extension, so are we.

The terrible double meaning is thus imparted

To the original question of human ethics

"Am I my brother's keeper?"

The second of February, 1980

Began three days of misery

A scene of retaliation

Epitomizing violence, horror, and vindication

Thieves, murderers, and rapists

Inundated their prison like homicidal sadists

Guards and convicts alike would pay the price

To them the electric chair would look like paradise

Only degradation, torture, and cremation would suffice

A sea of agony rolled in like the coming of the tide

The more fortunate escaped the insanity through suicide

The screams of the dying would haunt the living to the grave

Survivors of the riot relive the nightmare every day

The last act of defiance

With a never-ending appetite

Barbiturates set them off like dynamite

Eradicating informants

Acetylene torches dealt the punishment

Melted from skin to bone

The fire silenced their screams to moans

Smoke filled the air from bodies set aflame

Begging for mercy, but their words were spoken in vain

They weren't allowed to perish until they cherished all the pain

Guards they had taken hostage

Were to blame for pushing them over the edge

Their brutality would be their demise

Like sharks in a frenzy they lashed out at their prize

When the madness had ended

The gore was too intense to be comprehended

No one explained the real reason why

For cruelty of a few, so many should die

They knew of the flaws, but still insist the cause was justified