Not If I Can Help It Poem by Mark Heathcote

I've never been to prison.
I couldn't hack that lost time.
As I, hated-school dentition
'me' leads a life of crime?
Stand in line, a-number counted.
Not if I can help it.

Can I-be-truly candid?
Keep your counterfeit
-money, your drugs & distance
I've seen lives you've ruined
you take no care or prudence
didn't you get cautioned?

Receive dozens of chances
and continued, anyway
has it earned you any badges
these violent, brief forays
did you moralise your bit,
justify your acts.

Did you honestly omit?
Think who it impacts.
All wrongdoing has a cost
want to change-your-ways
look beyond bars permafrost
fix-your-hearts broken vase.

Remove that chip-off-your-shoulder
work towards your goals
no longer be a cheater.
Or one of those trolls.
Take any hand up coming your way,
and do it today.