{"id":1676,"date":"2023-11-17T16:17:31","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T21:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pensivejournal.com\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2023-11-17T16:17:31","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T21:17:31","slug":"a-book-club-on-death-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pensivejournal.com\/poetry\/a-book-club-on-death-row\/","title":{"rendered":"A Book Club on Death Row"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gardener\u2019s Almanac<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

contributes to routine, the screws quipping<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018life\u2019s no bed of roses\u2019\u2014a joke\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

repeated to the captive crowd<\/span><\/p>\n

each week, calming any nerves<\/span><\/p>\n

about their lawyers\u2019 visits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After all, what good is ad-lib<\/span><\/p>\n

when the straws they chose are short?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Donated books the staple, before\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the rounds the pages fanned<\/span><\/p>\n

for corner crimps or glossaries\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

soaked in spice\u2014but time\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

talking books is what they crave.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few read well\u2014their crime\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

a weight offset by Degree, by night classes<\/span><\/p>\n

or in-house at the factory:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

for others, rap sheets spooling years<\/span><\/p>\n

from truancy to murder, a sentence a mountain<\/span><\/p>\n

big as any sentence on the row.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jane Austen was here, library<\/span><\/p>\n

castoffs stacked ten titles deep, but\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pride and Prejudice <\/span><\/i>was tougher fare<\/span><\/p>\n

than solitary\u2014the lingo\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

too much like solicitors.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the west wall, a drone<\/span><\/p>\n

tries its luck\u2014spot-lit from the towers<\/span><\/p>\n

it snags the nets, then clatters<\/span><\/p>\n

to the yard below.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Gardener\u2019s Almanac contributes to routine, the screws quipping \u2018life\u2019s no bed of roses\u2019\u2014a joke\u00a0 repeated to the captive crowd each week, calming any nerves about their lawyers\u2019 visits.\u00a0   After all, what good is ad-lib when the straws they chose are short?   Donated books the staple, before\u00a0 the rounds the pages fanned for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"issue":[289],"coauthors":[364],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Book Club on Death Row | Pensive Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pensivejournal.com\/poetry\/a-book-club-on-death-row\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Book Club on Death Row | Pensive Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Gardener\u2019s Almanac contributes to routine, the screws quipping \u2018life\u2019s no bed of roses\u2019\u2014a joke\u00a0 repeated to the captive crowd each week, calming any nerves about their lawyers\u2019 visits.\u00a0   After all, what good is ad-lib when the straws they chose are short? 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