Indiana’s Prison Population is Nearing Max

Did you hear the news?

The television set so matter-of-factly 

informed me that Indiana’s prison

population is nearing max capacity.

I take the time to go back to the third

grade and use my multiplication 

table skills to someone’s advantage.

That’s twenty-five thousand sons

and daughters, daughters and sons,

multiplied by a private prison complex

and rehabilitation denial. 

What does that come out to be?

Tomorrow the newsflash might say

that crime rates are egregious, 

so they need to send in the National

Guard. Uncontrollable rates, send in

more sons and daughters,

daughters and sons.

As if keeping the prisoners in their place

couldn’t keep us safer, 

the threat must be growing

exponentially, multiplying by 

such a rate, that if I don’t clutch 

my Kurt Geiger recession proof 

bag closer to my shoulder,

I would lose my own value 

outside the bars. But I don’t multiply.

I just digress.