THE JAILS

April 30, 2011  (I was 66)

THE JAILS     An Adaptation of E. A. Poe, The Bells

                            (Hear me read both at JohnKallio.com  Go to: Audio)

                  I

Hear the hinges in the jails -

County jails!

What a night of mischief their whining unveils!

How they grate and rasp and scrape

In the icy air of night

While the pimps that over-sprinkle

All the streets seem to twinkle

With a crystalline delight.

Doing time, time, time

For a sort of Runic crime,

To the din incarceration inevitably wails

From the jails, jails, jails, jails,

Jails, jails, jails-

From the helling and the yelling of the jails.

            II

Hear the mad prison wails –

The penitent flails!

What a tale of terror now his turbulency scales!

In the startled ear of night

How he screams out his afright!

Too much horrified to speak

He can only shriek, shriek,

Out of tune,

In futile expostulation to the deaf from the barred.

In his clamorous appealing to the mercy of the guard,

Crying higher, higher, higher,

With a desperate desire,

And his resolute endeavor

To invoke a now or never

From a mute and timeless moon.

Oh the jails, jails, jails!

What a tale their terror tells

Of despair!

How they clang and clash and roar!

What a horror they outpour.

Pounding heartbeats perturbate the air!

Yet the ear fully knows

By the twanging,

And the clanging,

How the danger grows and grows.

The ear distinctly details

From the screwing

And tattooing

How the danger nails and impales

In the wrangling and the mangling in the anger of the jails –

Of the jails,

Of the jails, jails, jails, jails

Jails, jails, jails –

In the clamor and the clangor of the jails!

III

Hear the moaning from the jails –

Foreign jails!

What a world of solemn thought their monody assails!

Of the tortures in the night

How we shiver at the sight

And melancholy menace of their tone!

For every sound that floats

From the rust within their throats

Is a groan.

Ah, the people that we accuse,

Detainees that we abuse

Are alone.

And who keeps the cagelings captive

In their muffled monotone

Feels a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone.

They are neither man nor woman -

They are neither brute nor human –

They are Ghouls.

And our country collects the tolls

Of their subhuman souls, souls, souls;

Souls

Sounding from the jails!

Our sense of justice fails,

Drowning in the jails!

We steal their time, time, time

for a sort of punic crime

Resounding in the jails –

Keeping time, time, time

In a sort of Runic rhyme

To the throbbing of the jails,

Of the jails, jails, jails –

To the sobbing of the jails;

Keep time, time, time

As he wails, wails, wails,

In terror, terrorist tales

Revolting in the jails!

In the jails, jails, jails –

To the jolting of the jails,

Of the jails, jails, jails, jails,

Jails, jails, jails –

To the moaning and the groaning of the jails.