National Adult Literacy Database

March 13, 2000

This poem was written by Mary Bennet, from Vancouver, BC. Mary is from the Seneca First Nation and she was recently enrolled in the Carnegie Learning Centre in Vancouver.

Cells

by Mary Bennet

Cell, brick, cement, bars, walls, hard,
tv's, soaps, stories, tears, no visitors
allowed, lawyers, liars, guards, big,
touch guns, mean fingers, small bed,
green cloth, disinfected, toilet, sink,
bars, no window, no door, no knob to turn,
no air, no wind, cold, nightmares, screams,
no touch, no touching.

I want to touch someone. I want to hold
that woman who cries everynight.

I WANT TO TOUCH SOMEONE.