HEY THERE

Courtesy of Courtney Hanson

by Sherie Jarvis

Thanks for the strength and the courage you have shown.

People blow in the wind forgetting that with help change is growing.

People like me broken but still manage to keep the love flowing…

It was once #metoo, I am #transgender and #black lives matter even in this prison 

where the way I look keeps bad chatter.

I’ve fallen but if they’ll remove their foot off my neck I can get up and breathe.

Scattered scars, bruised heart, memories that don’t leave.

Childhood in a wild hood just now learning to read.

Understand my struggle before calling me a bad seed.

HEY THERE no one was there why didn’t they take the time to love me.

God is near, but why didn’t they physically hug me.

When the masks come off and the smoke has cleared,

when all lives matter and no one is weird just maybe I’ll make it home to say 

HEY THERE.

Special thanks to the The Fire Inside for sharing this poem and poet, published in The Fire Inside, Issue Number 61, Summer 2020 

The Fire Inside is a Newsletter of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners

4400 Market St., Oakland, Ca. 94608 

For Vickie

Help i can’t breathe
Was her only plea
But it was not met with urgency and now beautiful soul gone too soon
Preventable yes
But CDCR is never accountable for their mess
So we stand here and protest
We shout the names of our lost loved one
Vickie we love you
Vickie we will fight for you
Vickie you won’t die in vain
Vickie we are sorry
Sorry because we couldn’t save you from a system that enslaved you
The same system that claimed they wanted to help you
Failed you
We, your sisters and brothers, are sorry that we are still powerless in 2019 from preventing these systems from destroying our families
CIW u r guilty
Of inmate cruelty
I have no reason to lie
I once was a victim you see
No more hiding behind these gates
The truth has been told
We’re shutting you down
I promise you that
even if cost me my soul
Screaming no more deaths is becoming a little too old
We are taking the power back
We will see that to it that you get closed
For good
Thank you

by Taylor Lytle

[Editor’s Note]: Originally published in The Fire Inside (Newsletter of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners), Issue Number 60, Fall 2019.