My Time in Prisons
Locked down!
Imprisoned by the pandemic…
I think of all the prisons
I have visited.
Fort Christian in
Charlotte Amalie,
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
300-year-old Danish fort,
later, St. Thomas Prison.
Then the dungeon
became a museum.
We toured the dungeon
at Fort Christian.
I remember the coolness
and the rough, thick walls
covered with graffiti…
artwork and obscenities,
messages from inmates
killing time.
Alcatraz, San Francisco Bay.
Once a lightouse, military fort,
and military prison…
then a federal prison.
Abandoned…
then occupied by protesting
Native Americans…
Now a museum.
We visited the cell block,
rusting human cages
and peeling paint…
We thought about the movie,
true story of an inmate,
“Birdman of Alcatraz”
who shared his food with birds.
This was the place
where Al Capone,
famous American gangster,
served time for tax evasion.
They never proved
his other crimes.
We toured a modern day
model prison in California…
remarkably like a college campus!
No graffiti here!
Locked down!
Imprisoned by the pandemic
and writing graffiti…
photos and poems
posted on my blog.
Copyright© 2020 by Cheryl Batavia
