how do I keep my eye from seeking out
the inmate in the prison yard with:
the deep purple scar on his right cheek
the untied boot
the slight limp
the menacing look
the don't fuck with me attitude
Inmate # 7629755
dressed in his faded prison greens
blinded by his mother's cruel insults and put-downs by five
"niggerized" by South Philly gangstas by twelve
tutored in ignorance by an uncaring school system by fourteen
groping for food and shelter with starvation wages by sixteen
tried to be all he could be in Viet Nam by eighteen
rejected by country he fought for when he came home at twenty
desperate he tried his hand at street crime
no friends in high places
or money to hire a good attorney
so serving twenty-five years to life
is as inevitable as day following night
in America where both the rich and poor have an equal opportunity
to beg on the streets.                 

      *   Inspired by reading Carl Upchurch, Convicted in the Womb:
One Man's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker(New York:
Bantam   Books, 1996).

  I had the pleasure of meeting Carl and help bring him to Buffalo
for the First Annual Civic Luncheon of The Salvation Army. Upon
release from prison he vowed to change his life and to help others
do the same. This he has done by earning an M.A. Degree and
founding the National Council for Urban Peace and Justice, a summit
that brought together 150 gang leaders and earned him a President's
Medal from Bill Clinton.

   Carl's life story is a beacon of light that started with him accidentally
finding a book by Shakespeare holding up a table while in solitary
confinement. For those who serve the disenfranchised and for those
who have lost hope please hear his message:

            "In the end, I may not be responsible for what I was, but I am
responsible for what I am ,what I hope to become, and what I hope
my children will become."