18 to Life

I want to apologize because I havent blogged in a while, i've just been so busy writing skits and poems that i didnt find the time but i just wanted to share this poem, would appreciate some feedback, please. It's kind of raw and I haven't really looked at punctuation as yet...

18 to Life

by Delroy Nesta Williams

I got 18 to life

And I didn't do the crime

I got 18 to life

Forced to serve the time.

From the moment of birth,

Wasn’t given a chance on this earth

And i'm stuck with this prison sentence

Somebody, tell me what's next.

How can I make amends?

Restitution is for some, not all?

Who will help me overcome?

Stuck here for 18 to life

Simply because I was born poor,

Because my mother didn’t wait.

She spread her legs; victim to my father’s bait

Now she’s left with this little baby

All on her own.

18 to life,

How will she cope?

No job, no man and a little boy

And welfare really doesn’t care.

So I’m stuck here

Trapped within this prison

She was barely a child herself

Where was my father figure?

Surely couldn’t have been this sperm donor

And then they wonder,

How I got 18 to life

Without yielding a gun or knife.

I cry myself to sleep at nights

At the thought of living out my life

Within these broken down walls

I wake up in the early morning

Afraid to open up my eyes

If only I could move away.

But I’m rooted to this place,

Like a tree planted by the rivers

Ohhhhhh; What a rat race.

18 to life

And for what?

Simply because of my birth place.

I need to find a way out.

I will come back for you, mommy

Oh yes, that’s a promise.

Without a doubt...

I’m not sure when as yet,

But by these hands

I’ll break down these walls

Because I can’t stand the fact

That I might be stuck

In the ghetto all my life.

I just can’t serve 18 to life...