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Under Lock & Key

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[Rhymes/Poetry] [ULK Issue 80]
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A Black Man's Confession

by a California prisoner February 2022
A black man’s confession;
I could never escape oppression;
for as long as beauty is black;
ghosts, demon, and devils
breath down my back;
mad cause they can’t trick me
out my skin;
to bask in the chocolate love
that I’m in;

So my punishment is to never
escape oppression;
For this is true as my confession;
At 51 it’s still the same;
penitentiary slavery chains;
When he say “shut up”, and I
won’t comply;
I have to wonder if I’m’a die;
And if I rely on Freedom of
speech;
Then theres a different lesson, he
aim to teach;
So I could never escape
oppression;
300 years and we still guessin;
why they hate us like they do;
A voice whispers “cause they
can’t be you”
So in a way i understand;
How it hurt to be ‘that’ man;
wicked, sick and on the plot;
Slimey gooze covid snot;
Yet ‘n’ still I feel I feel his pain;
His soul is lost without a gain;
Something the devil farted out;
unleashed on me, so I can’t pout;
So before I stink like the rest;
I rather stay black, and be
oppressed!

Suffer with a smile
so how you hurtin me?

WE The People
u dig? dude!
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[Rhymes/Poetry] [Revolutionary History] [ULK Issue 76]
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Pioneers

by Master Justice Cipher Supreme January 2022
Is this how Marcus Garvey felt?
Is this how Noble Drew Ali felt?

She asked, “Why does it has to be me?”
Cause clearly I do see
Through all the pain and travesty
The road that will break us free

But I know
That it’s gonna be a lonely road
Most of the time I’ll be left in the rain and the cold
Yes I know
Many done failed on this road
Out their soul they sold
They fell for the fool’s gold
Now they bloodsuck for the light
Because their insides are filled with black mold

Is this how Elijah Muhammad felt?
Is this how Clarence 13X Smith felt?

A lot of my own will disregard me
Say I’m lost in the sauce and fell into insanity
If only they could see the road to the land of milk and honey
Just as vividly as I
No lie I rather die than to compromise for a crumb of the capitalist pie
Seen those that I was close to cower when the
Dragon flexed its false power
All I could do is shake my head and sigh
Then remember that the world is ours
Even though we’re the patch of kids that grew up hella sour

A part of the oppressed we’re nothing less than a survivalist
The pressure of the world where only diamonds can withstand the stress
Like the chosen ones out the bible; you didn’t know that we’re bless?
Ima be Brother of the struggle until the opps leave me bloody and stretch
Or until all the rads are freed and there ain’t no imperialist left.

Is this how Fred Hampton felt?
Is this how Bunchy Carter felt?
Is this how Stanley “Tookie” Williams felt?
Is this how Larry Hoover Sr. felt?
Can somebody tell me?
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[Black Lives Matter] [Rhymes/Poetry] [Police Brutality] [ULK Issue 76]
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I Can't Breathe (George Floyd)

by a California prisoner January 2022
I can’t breath, gotta watch out for police
Asphalt in my teeth, underneath da knee
4 deep, 3 pressin on my body
All I can think about is callin on Mommy
I’m almost dead now, Blackin out in da ground
Black faces screamin “He’s almost passin out”
I-phones out people video taping now
Maybe one day my cries will ring aloud
I’m reaching out for help but I cant’ make a sound
It’s gettin blurry, cops yellin “settle down!”
It’s settled now, pick me up off da ground
EMT arrival but I’m already in da clouds
It’s too late to demonstrate the pleadings in the crowd
I’m upset with the way the shit played out
I can’t breath people mobilize the streets
Burn tha city down while the rich folks sleep
Antifa on the scene, nobody tryna be seen
Stupid opportunists lootin on the grief
Please don’t take away the dream
By feelin tha pleasure from releasing dopamines
Money schemes? But was it worth a murder spree?
One phone call and the cops murdered me
Everybody seen the video on the screen
Thanks to the broadcast on the show TMZ
I was on prison TVs the streets seen the feeds
Now the vigilantes roam in the streets
Hand-in-hand singing black symphonies
We don’t want sympathy
We just want to be seen
In the same light as a human being
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[Rhymes/Poetry] [ULK Issue 75]
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Prison Tears

by a Texas prisoner October 2021
I cry and the teardrop is full of metal bars
The bars being another representative for these hidden scars
No one can feel my pain because it’s locked away
How can you sit in a cell and stare at the four walls all day?
Looking this way and that way, right and left, which ever way the tears flow
Pain and the trauma is the very essence that cause the tears to grow
I lost my liberty and the only thing I can do is freely cry

Plastick of MIM(Prisons) adds: I’m sure many of our readers can relate to the pain this poem expresses. The retribution and the brutality the pigs lay out on the masses and revolutionaries strikes us at our hearts. Mao Zedong taught us that all men die, but death varies in significance: death lighter than a feather and death heavier than Mount Tai. Malcolm X in regards to his life as a lumpen gangster said that it is of no shame to have once been a criminal, but the shame comes from staying in that criminal road unwilling to change.

The author of this poem has done more than just cry in prison. Ey has supported MIM(Prisons) financially, reported on local conditions and studied revolutionary theory. Of course these things can all be controlled by the state or the whims of the prison guard, so perhaps they cannot always be done freely, or without retribution. We print this poem as a genuine expression of a USW comrade, but include this addendum since we do not agree with the conclusion as the pages of Under Lock & Key should make clear.

If you are reading this comrade, know that the world is with you! That goes for our readers as well! There’s much more we can do – more that we must do – against the imperialists and the reactionaries. The world is yours!

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[Rhymes/Poetry] [ULK Issue 77]
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The Gates

by a Georgia prisoner October 2021

The gates will open, and once more I’ll be free. But there’s a fact that makes me wonder, What will become of me?

Do I have a “future” awaiting me such as the past I’ve known? Will there be opportunity of “employment” for men such as myself? Or will I have to sell drugs, steal and rob again, in order just to get by?

What about my “family” who love me very much? The ones I haven’t seen in years. Can they accept me now without any doubts or fears?

What about the “people” I once knew, but haven’t seen in a while, Will they accept my “friendship” or will I be forced to walk alone?

Yes. The “gates” will open and once more I’ll be free. But there’s a fact to make me wonder, What will become of me?

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[Rhymes/Poetry] [ULK Issue 73]
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Fallen (The Empire)

by an Indiana prisoner May 2021
The imperialist capitalist
World super-power; Amerikkka must fall
This bourgeois country don’t deserve
2 stand tall
Not when it was established on slavery
And built on the dressed up lie of equality
Somethan’ it can not live up 2 today
In the face of mass modern-day inequality
And mass incarceration
Which is nothan’ more than modern-day slavery
Come on my people wake-up
Wake up my people
And I’m not just talkin’ about Black people
No
I’m talkin’ about the common man and woman
All of humanity
Don’t you see that We are destroyin’ the planet
On top of that
We are bein’ exploited by the global elite
Got-damn-it
The proletariat of this imperialist
Capitalist world superpower-Amerikkka
Are you and me
The poverty-stricken common man and woman
On our backs stand this unjust country
Just as all things that goes up
It 2 must
Shall fall
Just watch and see
The empire is fallin’
The empire is fallin’
No
The empire has fallen
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[Rhymes/Poetry] [ULK Issue 74]
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Rage On

by New Born May 2021
I’m a fan of literal and biblical hell
But I’m not a fan of people getting tortured to tell
Is it because I’m a Moslem that they feed me the wrong foods
Or can I say in Jesus’ name to make Jehovah say I do
She speaks better English than me yet she’s not an Amerikkkan
Maybe because the only citizens are the Ku Klux Klan
How can a European call home this land on the Northern shores
When the first inhabitants were the Natives and the Moors
Columbus didn’t really find this land empty
And George Washington didn’t really chop down a cherry tree
Columbo found this land full of “savages” he say
And that cherry tree was the flag of the Moors of today
I wonder will this be said amongst the People
And when will the New Afrikan be considered equal
I sit here contemplating hour by hour
And when I “Rage” against the system I yell Black Power
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[Culture] [Rhymes/Poetry] [ULK Issue 81]
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Poem: The Government is a Rapist

by a Michigan prisoner February 2021
THE BREAKER OF SPIRITS, THE BOOGIE MAN CREEPS,
TIP THROUGH THE NIGHT WHILE EVERYONE SLEEPS.
TAKE THIS ABUSE, SHUT UP AND SIT,
GIVE US A LOLLIPOP AND HOPE WE FORGET.

CAPTURE THE SPIRITS, MESS WITH THE MINDS,
GO OUT IN PUBLIC LIKE EVERYTHING’S FINE.
A HOT BLOODED THIRST FOR THE SOULS TO EXPLORE,
ACTING LIKE THEY’RE THE GOOD NEIGHBORS NEXT DOOR.

JUVENILE JUSTICE, GET TOUGH ON CRIME,
KILL THE BLACK YOUTH WHILE THEY’RE STILL IN THEIR PRIME.
LIFE FROM THE FLESH, WATCH THE SOUL PASS,
VAMPIRES DON’T SUCK BLOOD FROM A GLASS.

THE CONCEPTION OF EQUALITY, FLEES AND ABORTS,
JUDICIAL GENOCIDE LIES INSIDE THE COURTS.
THEY MAKE LEGAL, THAT WHICH WAS A SIN,
THE LOLLIPOP KIDS GET FAKED OUT AGAIN!

RAVISH OUR COMMUNITIES, LIKE GARBAGE IN THE BIN,
NOTHING RISING UP BUT THE DUST IN THE WIND.
CROOKED COPS SEPARATE THE BLOOD FROM THE KIN,
CORRUPTION IS A CANCER THAT HAS GROWN FROM WITHIN.

WE ALL FACE EXTINCTION, READ BETWEEN THE FACTS,
STAND YOUR GROUND LAWS ARE AIMED AT THE BLACKS.
THE DANCE OF INJUSTICE, PREYS ON OUR NIGHTS,
DO THE STANKY LEG AS THEY SPIT ON OUR RIGHTS.

KIDNAPPED AND SHACKLED, JUSTICE DENIED,
MILK CARTONS DON’T EVEN KNOW WE’RE ALIVE.
SLAVERY IS BACK! BLACK LIVES ARE SOLD,
ALL THE INNER CITIES ARE MANAGER CONTROLLED.

THE VIPER OF INJUSTICE, SULFUR TO THE SPARK.
TRAP LITTLE BABIES AS IT HIDES IN THE DARK.
JIM TO THE CROW, OPPRESSED ARE THE YOUNG,
BITTER TO THE TASTE IS HIS NAME TO THE TONGUE. (TONGUE)

THE GOD OF THE HEAVENS, DOESN’T KNOW THEM,
THE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION DOESN’T SHOW THEM.
THE GOVERNMENT IS A RAPIST, A CRIMINAL AT LARGE,
A FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE THAT HASN’T BEEN CHARGED.
This article referenced in:
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[Rhymes/Poetry] [ULK Issue 72]
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Unite or Die

by an Indiana prisoner December 2020
This is a galvanizing poetic call 2 action,
The Soledad Comrade, George Jackson,
Once declared: “capitalism is the enemy,”
Meaning: you and me,
The common man and woman of poverty,
Are more family than enemy,
Because we are poor,
Fighting a common enemy of imperial elite capitalism,
Not 2 allude 2 the day 2 day,
Systemic Amerikkkan racism,
There’s truly no time,
For us 2 be killing and fighting each other,
When in arms together,
We are sista and brotha,
Therefore we must come together,
In a clenched fist alliance,
A peaceful defiant display,
Of unity and excellence,
Unite or die,
Is a true rallying cry,
Wherefore, we must join forces,
And overthrow the corrupt, racist, imperialist,
Capitalist Amerikkkan government,
Ergo, the clenched fist alliance,
A resolute display of resistance,
And defiance,
There’s no time 2 pray,
March and cry,
It’s either unite or die,
Truly, unity is the most dominant,
In the face of all inequality,
We are living in a truly,
Provocative span of time,
So what is it going 2 be,
Unite or die,
And commit 2 memory: “Capitalism is the enemy.”
We must unite or die.
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