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Have You Seen My Son? He has held his strong young body tense and ready for so long now that his hands go numb. He said that it had something to do with his bones, but there's trouble in his spirit shutting down. He was such a gentle boy. The social structure he had been born into began to crumble before he was even born. As a teenager, he was far more independent than most his age-out of a need to survive I suspect. There was no man that was an example to him as he grew into manhood. Drug dependent early-on, he had trouble with the law. He fell into the "system." He ran once, but came back-even so they "threw the book at him." In prison he faced violence. Overcrowding put him with young men charged with violent crimes. He got so hardened in there, I hardly knew him when he got out. He served over two years before he was paroled. There was a place for him to land, but not enough support for him to plant himself. Every week his urine was tested. One week marijuana was found in his urine. He didn't want to go back to the violence-and so my son ran. Now there are federal warrants for he is deemed an escaped felon. It's been over seven years since I saw my son and I wonder if his hands still go numb. He can't come home. I travel the country with no place to land, his father grows old with remorse. What has this system done to my son? How can I help him? How can such a young man be so abused by a system? The state says that he "owes" them two years. He should be allowed to be a productive member of society, instead this country stole his childhood and lost a good man. All in the name of the war on drugs. |
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