AP photo
By
Frank Bonacci
The Closing of Tamms
Trapped in myself for so long
i can no longer speak with others
Unable to make memories, buried
alive in a 9 x 12 world
Alone
my only company the sound of screams
the only touch the harsh push of a guard
mind destroying madhouse
shit smeared wall, faces
special locks welded shut
Isolation stealing my will
stealing my mind
stealing my god
blood leaks to relieve the pressure
knotted scars trapped in time
none will be the same, some broken
beyond repair
Your poems are my perpetual resistance pushing
forever—pushing against the coils,
the coils tightening around my humanity
The day i no longer resist is the day
my mother loses her son
Taking A Multitude of Men’s Souls—
But I will continue to live, strive,
and survive.
Tamms was a maximum security prison in southern Illinois, known for its inhumane tactics of sensory deprivation. Approximately 80% of this poem was derived directly from the letters of inmates. 2018 is the 10th anniversary of its closing—it was closed largely due to efforts stemming from the work of the Tamms Poetry Committee.
Frank Bonacci
Frank Bonacci, MA, JD, lives in Chicago and works as the grants manager for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Joliet. He holds a Master of Arts in English Literature from DePaul University and a Juris Doctor from the Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Outside of work, he likes to write poetry and throw axes.
Shilling! Beautifully and skillfully written.