jail bird

I feel these hard cold metal cufflinks
wrap around my wrists suffocating
the blood outta my hands behind my back
it's not nessecary
i'm not a criminal or dangerous
even with this knife in my bag
i can't do any damage
but that's not the issue.

The weigh of oppression on my back
getting heavier as I enter the system,
fingerprints and the sides of my hands are recorded
Big Brother's got a watchful eye
and I'm in his peripheral vision.

Stripped of all possessions,
doesn't matter what you did
because you're a criminal now,
doesn't matter how unjust the system is,
you're a statistic
and this black female cop's got something to prove.
she bathes in pigs blood.
She's not like the rest of us
even though she shares our roots.

Sit down but I can't relax
the air is toxic,
heavy with guilt, old ghosts that haunt the walls
blood on the floor from the black girl
that probably did nothing wrong
her timing that was off,
bloody fake hair caked on her scalp,
so high she can catch the stars
I don't blame her at all.

trying to make the best of this situation,
honestly it's not that bad it was just boring,
locked behind a ton of brick with little ventilation
and a drunk white bitch driving home to her newborn.
switching drunken idiots every couple of hours
repeating the same story over and over.

and I guess some people just don't learn,
once you are in the system,
you are erased from planet earth
forever condemed to slave labor,

this jail is for profit
and these cops are your keepers.
Doesn't matter what you did,
or how unjust it is for you to be here,
next to the homeless guy who has to stay
cuz he's too broke to make bail.
Can't get blood out of a turnip.

Wasting my tax dollars to have me sit on cement benches
bored for 12 hours until the judge tells me to sign these papers
and come back for court hearing.

Why are you stealing?
Just trying to survive, sir, just trying to keep living.

They steal my money,
I don't see anyone going to jail for that.
This is stupid.

Note to self: Be a better thief and when you leave the store, don't ever wait. No matter how nice you think some people will be for cooperating, they don't care what happens to you because they obviously don't know what really happens once the system has you. You are not longer human, you are now property.


It's just common knowlegde for people of color and the poor.