The Bubba Blues

i went to jail one time

through no fault of my own

the judge gave me ten years

ten

years

away

alone

when i say that it wasn't my fault

you know that's a barefaced lie

i embraced my dark side for a time

i still don't even know why

so without a fuss and no further ado

they flung me into a dark dingy cell

trust me when i say there is a heaven

because they...sent me... straight to hell

imagine everything bad in the world

and concentrate it all in one place

add boredom loathing and paranoia

limit and inhibit every single space

dark tendrils of the real and the imagined

gnaw away at your reason and mind

a suffocating shroud of gut wrenching fear

leaves you senseless, defenceless and blind

a wave of flaccid bitterness crashes

and crushes me hard up against my fate

it is this that i have done to myself

as i became a part of the systemic hate

i've seen the evil that lies in men's hearts

there is a taint of the blackness in us all

i have seen it leaving seen it bleeding

out of sight behind every wall

a malignant tattoo of malevolent fists

everything a clear and constant threat

every single misconstrued signal

n o room for feelings no time for regret

every single minute spent on edge

i still hear the noises that aren’t really there

silent echoes reach me from the past

a faint moan of loss and despair

but no noise at all was so much worse

you could feel the wrong in the silence

it promised blood it promised pain

it promised endless violence

i see myself now on shaky knees

back in the past where i once stood

having punished myself more severely

than any system ever could