https://www.prisonradio.org/commentary/never-forget-other-poems/
This is Champagne Song, one of the Prairie Land defendants currently in solitary confinement.
These are some poems that I wrote after being sentenced to 100 years.
This first one is called “Never Forget”
Never Forget the Threat of communism/
that was Hitler’s excuse for everything that he did.
We must go to war because of communism, he said.
We must get rid of the Jews because of communism.
No more elections because of communism-that was Hitler’s excuse.
Now we call it the Axis,
but Hitler called it the Anti-Communist International Pact.
This next poem is called “Solitary Cell”
Tiny drops of light dance across the floor,
spinning circles like shining spirits of many worlds,
worlds where we are happy, worlds where we are free.
Even in here, they call to me.
I reach out to them through water and wall.
We are as free as we choose to be.
This next poem is called “My Cat Since I’ve Been Gone”.
My cat takes dust baths now.
She looks like a chinchilla.
She’s spinning in the dirt.
I didn’t even know that that’s something that cats do.
My cat is leash trained now.
She loves to go on walks.
Her meowing is the same.
She’s always loved to talk.
She’s a convincing rhetorician.
She will argue you into a treat. My cat climbs trees now.
She’s fearless when she walks.
That little unhoused kitten grew up before I knew.
This next poem is called “Renée Nicole Macklin Good”.
Renee, I loved your poetry. I hope you like mine too.
It exists in a different time from you,
but I hope it somehow reaches through.
We should read our poems together
on the day when I meet you.
Next, I have a couple of one-line poems.
As I am not dead yet, I will continue to live.
No one is bored by a woman with a gun.
This next poem is called “Sentence Me to 100 Years”.
If I speak, they will silence me. They will try.
If I write, they will censor me. They will try.
If I move, they will track me. They will try.
If I live, they will cage me. They will try.
If I love, they will break my heart. They will try.
If I help, they will punish me. They will try.
So then, sentence me to 100 years. They will try.
This is Champagne Song, sentenced to 100 years for anti-fascism.
