The problem perhaps is that prisons
have doors,
should people not be pushed through
the bars instead

the tainted parts of the soul strained out
the clean locked in with you

Sentences served would have meaning then
to learn to live with the parts of you

that are pure

Shed you must.

We were born too heavy
For our mothers wombs
So much knowledge
Of the heavens
With God on our tongues
And history at our backs
Heaven is always
A charity away
A death away
A heartbreak away

Heaven is only for spirits
Light enough to rise
Shed your skin colour
The Gods you were fed
Underneath all this weight
Is a soul
Peel until you find it.
Shed everything else.
And shed you must.