COVID-19 and The Incarcerated: A Poem

I cannot imagine
being incarcerated;
in jail; locked up in prison
During this present time
during COVID-19.

Captive; caught
up in thoughts
of fear, death, doom-
consumed by everything
distant, dark

what leader’s heart
will say “We have to
let some of these people
go

-especially the most
vulnerable and the ones
we need not fear?”

What prisoner can
run to freedom’s arms
unharmed, unaffected
as the number of deaths
collected by the CDC grows
higher, and higher, and higher,
and higher?

There is a fire behind
those bars that is taking lives,
taking futures, taking away
hope.

These people are human.
These people do not deserve
to die. These people

have families too. This poem
prays for those who are caged
during COVID-19.

Copyright Christopher D. Sims
April 9th, 2020