This is a prison

This is a prison
overrun
with inmates

from all backgrounds
from small towns
with big dreams

where children
are playing
"Marco... Polo"

and running through fields
trimmed
by farmers' goats

and come in when called
to dinner by
their mothers

from all backgorunds
from large cities
with small-time crime

where children
play hoops in the street
one on one

and men sit on stoops
framed by
delivery trucks

and run away when told
to freeze by
police officers

pacing the dusty
courtyard
in search of some

escape from the same
empty prison
we've always known.