As Bound With Them
(Hebrews 13:3)
Copyright © 2005 Jordan White
My name is John Salcido.
I’m driving across the span.
Before me looms that recumbent girl,
The jewel we call
I’m on my way to work,
In the fortress by the bay.
On my right’s another jail, “The Rock”,
Left over from a bygone day.
To see the men locked up inside
Is hard for me to bear.
But here, outside, it’s harder yet,
To see the freedom everywhere.
The gulls and pelicans sail by,
The tanker blasts its horn,
Churning through the water,
On this cold and foggy morn.
Why is it, then, I ask myself,
Inside these walls are men,
Kept in cages, condemned to die,
Like animals in a pen,
While outside the walls the birds fly free,
The tides rush on, and on, and on,
Into the harbor, back through the Gate,
Freer than this man called John?