YUMA

I once visited a terrible prison.

As I came back out into the sunshine

All I could think—did they really do that?

Put men in a dungeon; that’s almost indescribable.

The fetid air, the dampness, the utter pallor.

Please tell me men didn’t spend years there.

How could any human retain any semblance

Of still being human after a year inside.

Why do some men treat other human beings

Worse than they would wild, untamed animals.

Can men actually be that inhumane

To their fellow creatures and still be sane?

And my history tells of even worse cruelties.

Is taking a simple loaf of bread punishable

By cutting off that man’s hand?  How depraved.

Who is the greater criminal—-the jailer or

The judge who orders such insane punishments?

Who first decreed the set-up for debtors?

Imprisonment for some minor debt for years.

Sometimes with their family.

What sort of civilization creates a skein of laws

That exact an inhumane form of punishment?

Are we really not yet civilized?

How much longer will it take to make judgments

That really fit all those ordinary crimes?