Bars of Despair

  Eye shut childhood memories
   invade my mind. A flickering light
   sways like a firefly.
   
   The smell of mom's chocolate chip
   cookies baking in the oven.
   Laying here on this concrete floor a
   lifeless corpse. Stares from afar,
   in the dark.
   Light shatters into a million pieces.

  Footsteps linger, cell block door
  slams like a ghostly night train to
  Hades door.
 Beast knocks, grunts and coughs
  Nights unending a blurred picture
  in my pocket.

  A sense of hope a smile that can't
  be broken. A serial number
  branded like cattle waiting to be
  auctioned off to the highest bidder.

  Thoughts that turn to nightmares.
  A devils stare looking through the
 mirror. You can hear the beating of
  my heart echo within my skin.
  A cold sweat runs down my back.

 Nothing but a gamble. A roll of the
 dice take a deep breath all bets in.
 Till I hear the sound of the
 gavel come down.