The slab of bricks rose

giddy with freedom and

to scale it

a desperate triumph called.

 

Light floated in through holes

knocked out too distant for purchase

by sadists in control

inviting misadventure

and few could ignore the prison wall.

Fair game in love and war

a practical experiment in active sport

 

Many had tried only to fall

to taint the ground.

 

The word had been sent:

those who succeeded the climb

were considered to have

done their time.

 

Mulvaney the governor

checked his chart with wry content

the ticks of injuries and deaths

logged solid with filthy reputations

detritus of soiled freedom,

smiled at the madness of it all.

 

Next to the chart, photoframe,

affairs of the heart,

daughter proudly leaving school

for the wide wide world

somewhere safe to start.