Letters and Poetry from our Inside Family

Decelerated

Dear Black and Pink, I have a poem for my inside family. I am incarcerated in prison in Texas. I am a trans woman. My name is Tina.

Making a million friends is not a miracle ... The miracle is to make such a friend who can stand with you when millions are against you.

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

I love you all my only family. Stay self.

Tina (TX)

... Without a doubt in your mind ... Then our love can surely withstand ...

THIS FORSAKEN TEST OF TIME

BLESSED BE

Phil S. (FL)

So I gotz to pep it up

Like spices ground and shaken

So my sadhana serious, heart light as a feather

And my smile consistent as Maya play in the weather Move by spirit in a world moved by commas and decimals

Most are numb, cold and distant to the love that’s self

Society of the Damned

Shards of glass, filling my shoes Tattoo on the biceps, born to lose

Existing in solitude, cement cage Government torment, fueling my rage

Abandoned by family, shunned by friends

Groundhog Day, it just never ends

So God emerges from the bosom as the heart of the path.

Gotta synchronize rhythm with every pulse and step.

I AM MAN.

Not a corporate fictional contract

This Forsaken Test of Time

We live by the sun, We live by the moon, We live by the promise ... that everything will be alright but sometimes the Great Goddess ... has a different plan in mind to see if our love can withstand

...

This Forsaken Test Of Time

We are separated by law but by love we are eternally bound ...

Nothing can be sweeter ... than this eternal love we’ve found,

So if your heart is pure and true

Legal slavery, working for a penny

Common sense, don’t have any Not about guilt, innocence or justice

Praying to heaven, answers from hell

Owned by the system, the gavel fell

Michael C. (OH)

Set the Straw on Fire

Orbiting from the first eye to behind the navel

With an astral grasp for grace, tryna refine my matrix

As slow as time since I’ve

With a surety of life, not a national debt. So set the straw on fire and let them claim the ashes. Cus I can hear freedom ringing and I know how to answer

-Leela D.

Rebel Talk Part 1

Revival of a revolutionary spirits

What I represent?

Dem single mother bastard children.

Uneducated, unmotivated and poverty stricken

Mama pay da rent, da car note, den broke, Da game sumtin’ slick.

So I’m young, BLACK and angry, real thug-life nigga

Infested communities of drugs and guns that’s brought in by the

Government

So before I move a pack or pull a trigger, just tryna win, I’m already guilty, “until proven innocent”

Ain’t dat a bitch!

“The days as slaves and Jim Crow’s segregated ways have passed.”

Dey sayin.

But I only see it disguised now as a “colorblind” racial caste system.

Crooked politicians and sellouts, oppressin dey own kin

In the “pursuit of happiness”

They’re privatizing prisons for capital

Mass Incarceration.

How could another life be property?

With a loss of civil rights even after release.

Take ha you wona, I’m anti-colonialism

Everywhere the Albino go, he rape the land and oppress the people

Rebel Talk pt. 2

Revival of a revolutionary spirit, What I represent?

The Motherland of wisdom. BLACK genesis, Check the pyramids. My heredity is God Man, manifest in the physical

And astral and mental Been mastered every plane of existence.

Whole civilizations who understood the Science of Living.

Hundreds of thousands of years before any westernized thinking. An enlightened people, way before colonialism, How you gon bring democracy

(now capitalism in disguise) to Africa where it was invented? And dress ya pawns as “appointed” leaders. Devil oppressors erased our culture, history and identity.

Spiritual genocide by “Willie Lynching.”

Karmically tied to these modern times,

I gotz to watch my tempa. Lost one, who found refuge in Buddha to be most skillful But what happened to “my” people?

I just wanna know. My whole life

I was ashamed of being BLACK and didn’t know it. Guess it was sub-compartmental But through practice, experience and accumulated virtue I shed dem old ethers. And broke me down Psychological brick by brick And rebuilt me

No, I’m ready for war.

-Leela D.

of earth?

Where will the lifemap go?

No heart, no lungs, no feet, no soul

No ground, no breath, no home

Searching, aching, longing for you

The only real love I’ve known

-Brian B (OR)

Now that I’m gone, remember me with smiles and laughter. And if you need to cry, cry with your brother who walks in grief Beside you. And when you need me, put your arms around anyone And give to them what you need to give me, there are so many who need so much.

I want to leave you with something ---Something much better than words or sounds

Without You

How does a heart beat outside of its home?

How will the lifeblood flow?

How do the lungs breath void of its breath?

How will the life-wind blow?

How does the soul lose sight of its shell?

Where will the lifeseed grow?

How do the feet walk in absence

Look for me in people I’ve known or helped in some special way. Let me live in your heart as well as your mind. You can love me most by letting your love reach out to our loved ones, By embracing them and living in their love.

Love does not die, people do. So when all that’s left of me is love,

Give me away as best as you can

-Rufus (CA)

Connections being built,

Bonding like a quilt, Easing on my guilt, Life on the rebuild, Makes me fulfilled, Strengthening my will

-Anthony W. (IL)

You, Me, Us, We

I see differently than you The things I do and finish are extraordinary to me I don’t think like you But I love you.

Thank you LP, LS, JJ, CS, for being true.

Never giving up on me

-Happy

(MN)

I am who I am because I’m not you

I live my own life despite the few

Call me whatever comes to your mind but I’ll still be me, this is my climb

I reach beyond the stars in the sky to be who I am despite the tides You could seek to destroy who I am but you would fail, I’m stronger my friend

The path of life includes flaws to grow

Sometimes fast, other times slow

You must learn to deal with it or it will consume you into its pit Life is full of endless lies you have to shine through and find

The path you seek is inside you have the courage to be you, too

-Nadia M. (TX)

Redemption

Here I stand before you, A humbled honest man Trapped behind the labels, can you see who I am?

I am not my past deed, though it’s how they’ll judge me. They’re blind of my true form, a monster’s all they’ll see. Can’t you see my words now? I shout this all out loud.

Redemption, redemption, will there be any left for me? Redemption, redemption. I cry out oh please set me free!

I’ll find nothing in this, anger rising higher.

Brand me with their labels, mark of the Pariah.

All out in the courtyard, I’m their exhibition

Hear their voices shout out, they want execution!

Now the mob is growing, soon comes their stone throwing. Redemption, redemption, will there be any left for me?

Redemption, redemption, I cry out oh please set me free!

My sexuality, like criminality, they judge these things of me. As if it’s one the same, society lays the blame, As if we’re born of hell and tried to cast a spell, on every one of them. A curse to draw them in, and make them just like us. I don’t get all the fuss.

I’ll never be like you, I’m proud to be myself!

Like nobody else ...

I think I finally found my source of redemption and it was never really in their hands. I’ll take it back for myself.

Redemption, redemption, I finally found some for me!

Redemption, redemption, I’ll cry out, when I walk free !!!

Alex AKA Maniac (RI)

I Will Make You Smile

I will make you smile

Like the rising sun

Displaying its beautiful colors

Take my hand

Come out and be my friend

I give you this flower

Blooming in compassions hour You will never be alone through life’s storms, or left behind, for I shine as your rainbow, and wipe your tears.

Just take my hand for a while.

By Jeff M.

With love, in solidarity.

Great Is What You’ve Always Been

Letter of wizdom to my LGBTQIA+ family

Focus on your dreams and never doubt yourself

Nor your abilities to achieve greatness, if you focus on greatness, you will become great. If you focus on evil then evil will come devour your chances to be great. Hate and envy will never allow you to reach your full potential if you allow it to become a part of you. Whatever energy or vibe that you choose to feed or fuel and manifest whether its positive energy or negative energy will be brought to you. So focus on greatness and succession and magnetize your dreams with all doubts swept to the side and you will inevitably be as great as we all are meant to be ...

Be and stay strong. Be proud of who you are and who you have and will become because great is what you’ve always been ...

- Amber AKA Baby Sean AH 727 (NV)

I don’t need a crew, I don’t need a team

Vision is precise like a laser beam

I see all the masks like its Halloween

I don’t need a friend, I don’t need a foe

What I really need? I don’t really know

Think I’m really frozen, I should let it go

Ice Queen now, heart is made of snow & I’m a serpentine speaker, talk in parseltongue

Like Medusa just came back for a lil’ fun

Kara Nichols (missing person since 2012)

Concrete and metal, meet a petal turned to hash.

A garden once was given, now a prison to outlast.

Pain bleeds but rightly so, to stop the teeth that gnash.

The love that felt is just a dream, a substance shadow cast.

Its there it was the day she fell and found the sky so grey

Take my hand like we just met and we’ll be on our way

With pounding hearts a feeling found, eyes dilate the sky, speckled edges

Find the thought, the reason doves can fly

A thinking place is all one needs; a bar, a cell, a swing.

Bee positive, as times unreal, one best embrace the sting.

-Alex W. (CO) -Poem written March 8, 2017

In the dark but I shine like a lil’ sun

Praying to the moon, blessings to the sun.

Done but I really need to bring in back

That’s a fact and so that’s where I bring it at I just rap, I don’t care if they feeling that Emo so I rap where my feelings at

There a bunch of fucking layers I be peeling back

Peeling back the feelings in appealing tracks

Still in fact appealing when I’m willing that & I’m feeling that my will invoke the still in that

A Blackrose (TX)

Which from true affection flow Love me now while I am living

Do not wait until I am gone And then have it chiseled in marble

Lukewarm words on ice-cold stone

If you have tender thoughts of me, Why not whisper them to me? If you wait until I am asleep never to awaken, There will be death between us So if you love me, even a little bit,

Let me know While I am living so I can treasure it.

Vampir (TX)

This is how I do when I’m on the scene

Love Me Now

If you are EVER going to love me,

Love me now

While I can know the sweet and tender feelings

Across

1 Came across a record concerning journalist (10)

6 Language of old city belonging to the French (4)

9 They’ll get wrongly blamed for heading off escape by animals (10)

10 There’s potato in Mum’s pudding (4)

12 Style of cooking providing contrasts (5-3-4)

15 Country-loving Irishman in charge of containing disturbance (9)

17 Giving note to terrorists makes one angry (5)

18 One who latches on to another is a sucker (5)

19 Sailor’s intent perhaps is to be self-restrained (9)

20 A comment sure upset in due proportion (12)

24 Man told to get on his knees? (4)

25 Boundary rope may produce such a decision (10)

26 E.g. dogs returning from walk (4)

27 Not quite one’s best friend on the ship (6,4)

Down

1 Pretty girl gets some food (4)

2 Animal found in sea location (4)

3 Fat little Edward is biased (12)

4 The First Lady touring

Oklahoma will awaken memories (5)

5 The thresholds of delights (9)

7 Heartless robbers go off with a pet. The villains! (10)

8 Below, below, below (10)

11 Managed to get clergyman in dead awkward situation (12)

13 They are seeking work after demolition of aspic plant (10)

14 Steam railway takes on head of Railtrack to improve efficiency (10)

16 To perform in a different key, one’s parts must be arranged (9)

21 Went on horseback round cowboy show (5)

22 Junk mail from the capital (4)

23 Nothing but a lake (4)

“There is not a single era in United States history in which the police were not a force of violence against Black people.”

― Mariame Kaba, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

“Abolition is not some distant future but something we create in every moment when we say no to the traps of empire and yes to the nourishing possibilities dreamed of and practiced by our ancestors and friends. Every time we insist on accessible and affirming health care, safe and quality education, meaningful and secure employment, loving and healing relationships, and being our full and whole selves, we are doing abolition. Abolition is about breaking down things that oppress and building up things that nourish. Abolition is the practice of transformation in the here and now and the ever after.”

― Eric A. Stanley, Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex