When Kathy Kelly Went To Jail Poem by Gary Corseri

When Kathy Kelly Went to Jail


by GARY CORSERI

When Kathy Kelly went to jail,

the land of the free, home of the brave

bent out of shape over deflated footballs;

O’Reilly railed at one of his guests

who dared to suggest that “American Sniper”

was not a really, really good show;

“black ice” blanketed Texas to New England

as 16-wheelers careened and caromed,

haphazardly killing all the way home.



She had tried to deliver:

a loaf of bread

and a letter

to Whiteman Air Force base

requesting they stop sending their drones

over the heads of Afghan kids

(and everyone else for that matter!) .



A little past 60, small, with features chiseled

by wind and her will, she has lost count

of numbers assigned to her,

prison food regurgitated, times being ill,

for protesting wars for the sake of the children—

white, black, red, yellow, brown–

all her pretty ones,

forsaken by men pushing buttons in bunkers

at Whiteman or elsewhere;

in serpentine caverns, winding under

Pennsylvania Avenue;

or in boardrooms in London…

haphazardly killing all the way home.



“The mind-forged manacles” Blake wrote about

are what she’s standing fast against—

this wind-chiseled, Irish-Catholic girl,

who took Christ’s messages to heart:

to feed the multitudes with Truth;

to suffer for the sake of it;

to alleviate the suffering

so loaves and fishes multiply.



She cannot help but see

the commonality of life:

a kid walking down a street

in Ferguson, Missouri,

or Kabul, or Fallujah, or Gaza–

walking in a sniper’s crosshairs,

slipping on black ice.



The “summer soldiers and

sunshine patriots”

send boys and girls to kill for them—

other people’s boys and girls.

Ranters rant about 100-year wars,

“bad guys and good guys”

(like children playing video games):

billionaires cavort on multi-decked yachts

while the masses rot under chem-trailed skies;

puffer-fish generals, medals galore,

parade for more money (always more)

before a Congress of stooges

in on the take.

Media meatheads and celebrity clowns

preen for the cameras,

take selfies of grinning,

pancake-make-up faces.



Kathy Kelly,04971-045, at FMC Lexington–

more than a number stapled to a file;

more than a cog in a Chaplinesque movie,

won’t keep the flywheel grinding

the better angels of our nature down;



she dares to see things as they are

(and ask, “Why? ”) .

Dares to see things as they still might be

(and ask, “Why not?) .



Against tentacled and prying darkness, she

whispers to the crying child: “We are here”;

stands fast, and tells a mortified Authority:

“We are one with those who share

the morsels of our shared humanity–

the leavened loaves of love.”

(Note: This poem has been posted at CounterPunch and other sites around the world. The author- Gary Corseri- retains publishing and posting rights.)

Kathy Kelly is the co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She has traveled to Iraq and Gaza during wartime–to bear witness and give comfort. The author of Other Lands Have Dreams (Common Courage Press) , she has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of U.S. military bombardment and among inmates of US prisons. In December,2014, she was sentenced to 90 days in federal prison after she and Georgia Walker had attempted to deliver a loaf of bread and a letter to the commander of Whiteman Air Force base, asking him to stop his troops from piloting lethal drone flights over Afghanistan from within the base. She began serving her sentence on January 23,2015. (info@vcnv.org) …

Gary Corseri has published poems, fiction and articles at Counterpunch, Redbook Magazine, The New York Times, Village Voice and hundreds of periodicals and websites worldwide. He has published 2 novels,2 collections of poetry and a literary anthology (edited) . His dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has performed his work at the Carter Presidential Library. He has taught in public schools, universities and prisons. Contact: gary_corseri@comcast.net.