attica in poetry

The rights allowed prisoners
are the baseline of the rights
you will have as citizens
in a time of fresh crisis.
Attica.
Attica.

Everything you let them
routinely strip way from
a woman or a man
just because they’re
a theft or a killer
even though they’re still
just a woman or a man
is what authority will believe
they can do to any one of us
in the heat of some war
or after some blown up bus.
Attica.
Attica.

What you allow the government
or its shady private subcontractors
to do to a criminal
because you think they deserve it
because you think they forfeited
their humanity in committing a crime
is what the government can do to you
in the exact wrong place
in the exact wrong time.
Attica.
Attica.

What you allow to happen in jail
is what you allow on yourself
when systems start to fail.
Consider the rights
of those locked up in a shelf
then consider the future
consider yourself.
Consider the slaves within Attica.
Attica.
Attica.