"The Agreement" (National Poetry Month poem-a-day) Day 28
Written by Bruce A.
Pandolfo
4/28/2017
Danny's mother prays
every day.
She prays daily that
she will stay healthy.
Danny's mother takes
care of herself.
She hopes Danny will
have a great
big family party when
he turns 50.
Danny talks to his
mother on the phone every day.
Between phone calls and
prayers,
Danny's mother speaks
with
Danny and God equally
often
about the same things.
Mothers are the great
creators
and they worship their
sons.
Despite this,
if you meet Danny's
mother,
she will not tell you
about him.
She does this to
protect herself.
“I love you baby”
she says to her son with
an hint of exhausted desperation.
“I lo---THIS CALL
IS FROM A FEDERAL PRISON”
That familiar automated
response interrupts Danny
with its rigid robotic
reminder.
and 15 minutes into
their conversation,
the phone clicks off.
Danny can't use the
phone for another hour.
But after 10 years you
know the drill.
Danny won't be out for
a while.
3 hots and a cot, the
whole 9.
Danny's in for a crime
he didn't commit,
for conspiring with an
informant who set him up
in a reverse sting to
steal hypothetical drugs
that never existed.
“Reverse Sting”
they call it.
Who are the real
conspirators though?
And thinking of Danny's
Mom,
waiting with fleeting
hope just to live
another decade to see
her son,
who is really getting
stung here?
Will they soon be able
to sentence you
just for watching a
crime show,
On conspiratorial
research charges?
Danny's mother thinks
only God can judge her son.
In the mean time,
she asks God to help
her live long enough
to see her son again.
To let her introduce
him proudly,
without fear of
instilling hopeless longing
at the very mention of
his name.
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