Original Poetry about anything and everything.
In the echo of your urgency
I discovered an emergency.
Your voice delicate and beautiful,
Like a spiderweb laden with dew.I hear the panic in your voice
When you can’t make a choice,
I reminded you if you’re over your head
That’s how you know it’s the truth.
I can’t see the dark for the light,
Can’t see the rot for the fruit.
Can’t see the problem
For the solution.
You took my colour blindness
So I can’t see green anymore.
It’s a blessing
I should count it so,
But how do I live now?
– Vagabond Prophet
Dear Honourable Deborah Fletcher May 10 2018
Good morning your honour and the jury. Sorry I’ve never been on webcam before and as I wish to be thorough I have written down my statement so I will be reading it in its entirety. I apologize if that seems rude but I don’t want to miss any details as I know they are important for the jury and their decision.
The events of the night of April 28th 2018 as I experienced them are as follows. I had earlier in the day had the first visit from my wife that I had had in the entire time I had spent incarcerated. I was informed that she was having an affair with my best friend and was seeking a divorce.
Later that night my cellmate Kal attempted to climb into my bunk to assault me. I know this because he had threatened me a week earlier saying he was going to assault me sexually and that I wouldn’t be able to escape him. I had tried to tell a guard once but he simply ignored my worries and told me to get in my cell before lights out.
So on the night of April 28th when Kal made his approach I made a wide slash at his face with a broken knife I had obtained from the kitchen. When he grabbed my wrist and wrenched it free and continued his ascent I grabbed my second knife. This one also obtained from the kitchen that I took cooking classes in. I made a straight lunge into Kal’s throat while both his hands were gripped onto the bed frame ready to swing himself on top of me. He bled down all over his own bed and fell to the ground. I regret my actions and regard them as morally wrong. My actions were done in self defense. Between the jarring news I had received from my wife just hours before, and the threat of this assault made a week prior I was in a state of incredible anxiety and was not in control of my own actions. A guard by the name of Mark then took me to a room in the hospital wing where I would be looked over in the morning to see if I had sustained any injuries myself. I remember walking into the hospital wing, seeing Ziggy in one room, I think he hit his head outside slipping in some mud. I also saw Trevor in another room, I don’t know what was wrong with him or why he was there. I was led to a third room and left to spend the night there. There had been terrible weather, wind and rain that day. There was a brief power outage in the middle of the night for maybe ten minutes, I remember the lights in the hallway going off and it taking a while for them to come back on. In that time the lights were off I heard screaming and smashing in the next room and ran to see what had happened.
In Trevor’s room I saw Ziggy on top of Trevor with his hands closed tightly around his throat, he may have struck him in the throat to start as he was coughing up blood and struggling for air. I ran over to try to pull Ziggy off but just as I grabbed Ziggy by the shoulders Trevor pulled a blade from his pocket and stabbed it through Ziggy’s temple. I got a lot of Ziggy’s blood on my hands and then I was left to watch Ziggy slump off dead and Trevor die shortly after gasping for breath through his shattered windpipe. I went yelling for help and soon people came and told me to go back to my room. Shortly after the lights came back on.
I was surprised at first to see Ziggy attacking Trevor the way he did. I then thought back on some of Ziggy’s past actions, and what I’ve learned about Trevor since and it started to make sense. Ziggy had previously made me an offer to commit violence to protect me from Kal before. Since Trevor’s death I have learned about his past crimes, those of being a serial rapist and pedophile. If Ziggy knew this it would only make it more likely that he would do what he did. His own crimes being ones of vengeance against sexual misconduct, if he learned the truth about Trevor he could have wanted to lay down justice as he saw fit. Trevor and I had up until recently had an agreement that I would do a portion of his chores and he would keep me safe from Kal. Having previously tried to offer me protection, if he learned about the fact that Trevor had retracted his own protection from me from a known sex predator, combined with the knowledge about Trevor’s own gross sexual misconduct I have very little doubt about why he may justify taking matters into his own hands the way he did.
That is the extent of my knowledge concerning the events of the night of April 28th 2018. Thank you Judge Fletcher and the jury.
P.S. Drop me a line!
Hello I’m winter
You must be spring,
I feel you splintering me apart
To let life come and sing.
You turn me to nothing
With the heat of your stance,
Did you forget this all started
With just one frozen glance.
Vagabond Prophet
Dear Joshua and Elizabeth April 28th 2018
How long has this been going on? I wish I’d yelled all this at you this morning, I was just so blind with rage I couldn’t. You two are lucky I’m much more articulate on paper than in person. You going to tell me Josh? I can not believe this. This is so much worse than the idea that my cellmate might try to rape me tonight. Is that why you suggested I look into divorce? To pave the way for you keeping my side of the bed warm? You really are a bastard you know that. That you would take the opportunity of my wrongful imprisonment to seduce my wife. That is sick really sick. Then when you know I might be dying, instead of letting me die in ignorance you come here with my own wife to try to explain to me about why I should really sign the divorce papers. Couldn’t you have just let me die without dealing with all of this, you obviously don’t care about me at all.
I had been in such a glum mood, as if the weather outside was mirrored in my countenance. It was raining so hard outside and the wind was howling and I remember looking out the window into the storm thinking I’d still rather be out there if it was with my Liz. I was so looking forward to seeing who it was when a guard came and told me I had a visitor. It was still early, just after breakfast just earlier today. I didn’t know who, I thought maybe you Liz had received my last letter and had a change of heart and wanted to let me see your lovely face one last time before I went to deal with what you both know is coming for me. God damn it, it was the happiest I’d ever been in here. I stopped at the bathroom on the way over to try and arrange my hair the best I could, the way I know you like it Liz. Tried to wash away the sweat and wash my face hoping the bloodshot eyes would go away. I didn’t even care about the cave that time looking into the mirror, I would have marched in there alone with weapons brandished ready to laugh in the face of whatever I encountered.
She’s come to see me, finally. This will be okay it’ll take time but everything will work out. That’s what I was thinking on my way over.
Then I saw you both, together. It didn’t even register at first. Damn she’s beautiful I was thinking, wearing the red top and black skirt that I like, your hair down. You looked so good, I just wanted there to be no glass between us so I could touch your hand.
That was until I saw the two of you were holding hands.
That was until I saw you weren’t wearing your wedding ring.
That was until I saw the divorce papers and a shiny new pen sitting on the table ready to slide under the partition. You’d even marked the spots I needed to sign and initial. Well aren’t you thoughtful.
Were you jealous I’d landed myself such a hot wife Josh? Is that it you just had to have one more notch on your bedpost, sorry my bedpost?
Or was it you Liz? Were you so done and tired with me that you figured my incarceration was an easy out? Was I that awful? I know I’m not the smartest or best looking, didn’t make the most money but I loved you and I cared. That’s all I ever wanted from you, why wasn’t it enough for you, that you had to go to my best friend the moment opportunity presents itself? You know if you had just told me you wanted a divorce a long time ago I would have given it to you? It would have broken my heart like you wouldn’t believe, but I’d have done it. As long as I still get to see the kids, and I give you what you want most. That’s what I tried to do just about every damn day why wouldn’t I do it here? I just don’t get it. If you hate me or just don’t love me, that sucks but if you leave me what could I do about it really? This though, this is like intentional torture. Pernicious. Yeah that’s right pernicious. Liz you always wanted me to try and sound smarter, so I’ve been reading books and poetry in here. Hoping one day I could recite you something romantic. Improving my vocabulary so I could impress you with how smart I got. I did all that from inside prison so I could return to you better than when I came here, so you could finally be proud of me.
Yet there the two of you were, just waiting for me to sign. Wouldn’t even tell me where the kids were. Just that they’re “fine”, whatever the hell that means. Oh and that I’d be allowed to see them once I was finished serving my sentence.
Allowed!?
ALLOWED!!!!
Are you kidding me, do you honestly think you’ll be able to keep them from me? Right now I have two knives in my cell and I am prepared to kill people to ensure I get back to my family in one piece. You’re telling me that my children are the only pieces of that left. Everything else is just in my way. I have loved you both, and I have given all of myself to being a husband and father and friend. Father is all that’s left. Do you have any idea what is left of the man who first walked through these doors? In the last week my cellmate threatened and attempted to assault me. He is a sex criminal. Also the person I’d been counting on to protect me, the one who for some reason I don’t even know keeps Kal away from me, he won’t do it anymore. Wouldn’t really even say why, just won’t. I am completely on my own in here and now you tell me I am completely on my own out there too. With the exception of my babies of course. Go ahead tell Alister that I’m coming home, I don’t know how long it’ll take but I’ll get there. I think I may take a page out of Ziggy’s book and decide life on my own terms.
I’ve changed.
You’ll find I can be pernicious too.
A.N. I’d love to know what people are thinking of this story so far.
If you’ll be the sun
I’ll be the moon,
Reflecting your radiance
Long after you’ve fallen.
Vagabond Prophet
Maybe I don’t write happy things because those are the things I want to keep inside.
300 seconds that’s all it took
To get you to sleep,
I’d sing my favourite songs
And hope you felt the vibrations
Through my chest and into yours.
You’ve known my voice for a while now
And I hope it still spells safety for you.
The older you get and more questions you ask
The more I want to know what you think of the world.
I’m not sure what to tell you,
It’s complicated my son.
Trust people?
No not that, certainly not that.
That was my mistake, it won’t be yours.
Love people?
Yes always.
Be generous?
Yes always.
Yet remember, every man woman or child
That you treat as friend,
Is enemy to themselves half the time.
Our Lord said it best,
Be as shrewd as serpents
And innocent as doves.
I’ll always hold you tight
And steady in the night,
Just as he’s held me
When I got my wounds.
I’ll sing your favourite songs
And hope you feel the vibrations
Through my chest and into yours.
– Vagabond Prophet
White hair and pale eyes to match,
Deep lines in your loose skin
Marking many winters of the body
And many more of the heart.
Mam can I ask about your chin whiskers?
Were you of such a beauty in youth
That in age it requires new roads to travel?
Now that you’re eyes are unclear
And your legs unsteady,
Majesty comes pouring off your face
Now that your words make no sense.
Don’t worry mam I understand now,
You were somebody’s queen
In a kingdom long fallen.
– Vagabond Prophet
Accents are hard
The R’s never end
And the understanding
Never begins.
So thick as to be spread
On the barrier between,
More mortar for the wall.
But when she spoke to me
In an uncommon tongue,
In the dialect of my soul
It was all over for me.
You were destined to invade
To lay claim to my heart
Shocking me into perfect communion
With wonder dripping from your lips.
– Vagabond Prophet
Vagabond Prophet 