The Prison Poem by Kurt Philip Behm

This prison I’ve created
is totally self made

This world I’ve evaded,
the fodder I trade

The reward is the punishment
in not taking part

The scars not to heal,
as I sit alone in the dark

The consensus, the polling,
all truth on the run

The shadows of misery,
— no day in the sun

The price of the membership,
an eternity black

With dealers and charlatans
all looking back

This prison I’ve created,
by rejection self made

This world I’ve evaded,
the fodder I trade

No verity in circumstance,
the horse trails the cart

These bars I look out from,
— a last lonely heart

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July,2015)