There Was No Escape Poem by Joyce Hemsley

Waking this morning, feeling fine
Until a word came into mind
The word was 'Alcatraz'.
In bygone evenings as I lay dreaming
This word put fear into my being...
'Alcatraz', Island in Sanfransisco Bay
Where life convicts were detained
And there was no escape - no escape.
Dangerous waters barred their way.
Vaguely reminiscent of Guantanamo Bay.
Merest thoughts of Alcatraz marred
The beautiful garden of May...and in
nineteen seventy, the year of finality
I breathed a secret sigh. The world and I
said goodbye to the Catle of Alcatraz
on faraway Sanfransisco Bay.

August 2008.