Rats

Though different in some ways, I am much like my convicted brethren in many others. I have learned that such things as true faith and true honor and true strength and true love, if you will, can only become true after having passed through the annealing and tempering process of the most severe of tests. I myself have refused to fail the testing. I will not become a “rat” against my neighbor, because to bear false witness is a crime against my honor and a weakness of character I do not possess. I am proud of this fact. By standing firm on the rock of decency, I found the flower of wisdom in this tangled growth of prison weeds and poisonous thistles, for I have found a verity in myself that was not a part of the other me.

When I travel from where I am sitting to the place where all knowledge can be accessed, I see my future stretching out before me like a long, thin, bitter line cutting a path through an empty and desolate plain. Where, it eventually leads, I cannot say, because I have not yet learned to see that far. However, my faith in God is unyielding, and my pen continues to sing the song of the oppressed, because the truth must be spoken, and who can know it better than I who have run from it my whole life?

I live in an unusual society. My new neighborhood is allot like Mr. Roger’s neighborhood, except that these guys have more tattoos. Despite all of the odds, I have found a way to exist here in a kind of groove that allows me to slide from day to day without being chewed up or victimized by the angry animals that dwell here. I have searched and found some of the true worth, the true goodness that indwells my fellow prisoners and I have found personal integrity within myself. Call me overly optimistic, but I continue to cling to the belief that, if I search for it long enough and hard enough, I will someday find that same measure of worth and goodness in our Legal System.
Friends..This is a sample of my newly released book called “Where No One Hears Me…the inner dialog of a lifer convict” page 125….please check it out and let your fb friends know about it…tell them this…if you really want to know what prison is like, read this book! Also know that all of the authors proceeds from the sale of this and all my books is donated to charity…

Peace be with you. Mark

Three Rivers, 1-24-17