Jessica Helen Lopez – Poetry
MEMO:
When you teach @ a prison
You must carry all pre-screened
items in a clear plastic backpack
and/or clear plastic purse
and/or clear plastic tote bag.
Contents of your planned-out day
must be visible to the naked and
watchful eyes of correction officers.
The titles of all pre-approved books
must be disclosed and in plain view.
That and your corner-store aspirin
a wallet-sized tissue box, the cadmium
orange of prescription pill, your lunch –
tortillas round and brown speckled
like a dairy cow encased behind
the science fiction of clear plastic.
Note. Mechanical pencils are not allowed.
Inmates use only one issued yellow number #2
that they wear down to a knotted bone
less than a nub of blackened pink eraser.
When you teach @ a prison
you must declare all fruits,
vegetables and cellular instruments
at the penal gates between the
free living and the incarcerated living.
No shorts. Do not wear shorts.
Watch the cleavage lest your cleavage
be watched. No sandals. Do not wear sandals.
Mechanical pencils are not allowed.
When you teach @ a prison
you may speak of religion
but not too much religion.
You may speak of politics
but limit the politics.
Limit dogma, compliments and lined paper.
Tell your inmates/students they are doing
Great but not that great.
Too much of anything is contraband.
At anytime and without notice
there may be a shakedown, lockdown,
master manipulator afoot, an act of god,
a grain of sand-sized milagro, an impromptu
poem or fist fight, cat call, phone call
to public defender, theft, fire alarm, real
fire, a disassembling of the hierarchy. And teaching.
Mechanical pencils are not allowed.
Jessica Helen Lopez is the current City of Albuquerque Poet Laureate. She has been a member of the ABQ Slam Team five times and has been twice the Women of the World Albuquerque Poetry Champion. She is founder of the collective for women and gender-identified women, La Palabra – The Word is a Woman. Lopez is the author of the Zia Award receiving book, Always Messing With Them Boys (West End Press 2011) and the chapbook, Cunt. Bomb. (Swimming With Elephants Publication). She is also serving as the Volunteer Coordinator for the upcoming national tournament Women of the World 2015 to be hosted in Albuquerque. She is a mama, teacher, feminist XINGONA, and a wannabe gardener.
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