Virginia Watts

Prison Legal Clinic

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As a law student
I learned quickly
there was almost nothing
we could do for our clients
besides file hopeless appeals
arrange transfers to other prisons
they thought would be better and wouldn’t
listen helplessly to complaints
about mean guards, rotgut food
slow mail service, inadequate yard time

Many lied to us
more than a few
told me they loved me
one bought me
an elaborate, fold out Valentine’s card
at the inmate commissary
Our Love is our Destiny
sad story there
Vietnam vet who howled
crouched childlike in a corner
when overhead
a helicopter whirled its blades

That card smelled
like burnt macaroni and cheese
the whole place did
a reek that invaded my hair
my street clothes
the men in orange jumpsuits
eyed longingly
thin men, muscled men, old men
packaged two to a cell
waiting for the BUZZ
that opened the lock
the minutes of their lives
mattering less and less

One day one guy
asked if I had scissors
he was younger than most
sadder than most
newer to the system than most
Why? I asked, my good sense
weakening like candle wax
I just want to cut paper again
I imagined him at school
a boy who smelled like his lunch
peanut butter and jelly
cutting out traced shapes
his tongue stuck out
trying to do a good job
the perfect pumpkin shape
silhouette of Lincoln’s head
Santa’s puffy beard
but then the man’s hand twitched
and my foot jerked
toward the panic button
hidden under my desk

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Virginia Watts is the author of poetry and stories found in The MacGuffin, Epiphany, CRAFT, The Florida Review, Reed Magazine, Pithead Chapel, Eclectica Magazine among others. She has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize. Her debut short story collection Echoes from the Hocker House was a category finalist in the 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Awards, selected as one of the Best Indie Books of 2023 by Kirkus Book Reviews, and won third place in the 2024 Feathered Quill Book Awards. Please visit her at https://virginiawatts.com/