Sitting across from an advocate for prisons and I get up off my seat,

Say goodbye, and out the door feeling an intense heat,

A disgust in the normalcy of keeping people in pain,

The disconnected opinion of victims automatically to blame.

Does he not realise that this fucked up society came before them?

The conditions that mold criminals manifest not if, but when?

The inevitability of the oppressed succumbing to oppression,

Whilst people chase money and status beyond healthy obsession.

‘Crime’ is a notion that serves the grossly powerful,

Private property means some kids go with bellies unfull.

‘Violation’ is a real issue we could concentrate on,

A world able to meet needs but distracted is the true con.

Opening the prisons obviously stirs a fear,

But what if a complete system change were not far but near?

A society committed to radically understanding the other,

Every aspiration important so that no shame is to cover.

Violators need help, we need a shift in perspective,

Freedom to choose our lives in consideration, uplifting the collective.

If we actually began to take each other as a part of ourselves,

We could thus dissolve lack mentality that leads to this hell.

This starts with the other inside each one of us,

Reclaiming the bad, wrong and real an absolute must,

A desire for inner peace reflects on the outside,

New circumstances of acceptance so no one is forced to hide.

I walk down the street and contemplate my convictions,

Wish every prison advocate to remember these distinctions,

Between a boundary simply honoured or not,

And a mindset of separation that lets the vulnerable get caught,

In a downward spiral with which we are all connected.

Mental health meaning safety and not egos falsely protected.

I dedicate this to any abolition thinker that sits on the fence,

And offer the principle of oneness* as a new lens.

* Oneness in my understanding, is that everything is made up of conscious energy unified in the quantum field. Everything we think, feel and do affects that field, as the field affects us in interconnection. We have a choice and ability to respond to information visible and invisible, hence responsibility, to ourselves and everything else that is just another part of ourselves.