Behind These Walls, Poem by "Jon", an inmate

Behind these walls, a convict's word is seldom heard.
So please take a minute to feel my words.
These walls can be painful, and they can cause tears,
These walls take away loved ones, these walls take away years.

Behind these walls, 130 months just passed me by.
All because I had this need to get high.
In 1995 my son Mitchell stepped on the scene.
Now I look at him face to face at age fourteen.

Behind these walls you can lose parts of your mind
One day you'll flip, then one day you're fine.
One day family is great, then one day they're dying.

Behind these walls is such a difficult place,
The air seldom works, and the food has no taste.
The toilet won't flush, and you can smell the waste.

Behind these walls you're nothing but a numnber
When the doors slam shut, it sounds like thunder.
The vicious "clank" rattles your head
There is no pillow, and hard plastic for a bed.

Behind these walls, one man can go insane.
Let me be the one to explain, this isn't no game.
There is no way to get back the time that you lost
This is just no way to live; here, behind these walls