Let the Dead Man Speak

How do you wipe your shit without no toilet paper? Growing up in the city we didn’t
have much but we at least had toilet paper. No but in here, in Attica, our shit is our problem.
They got guns pointed at our heads most the time. Five or six of them will come at you in
your cell and beat you bloody man. Fuck you up. Then they take you to the box where they beat
you again.
I get it, it's a time out. As a kid, my mama would demand with a straight voice with such
authority to go to timeout. Sent a chill down my spine the way she got mad. Damn straight I
listened to her, or else I was looking to get bruised.
No but now its those fucking guards. They treat us like living piles of garbage. Take us
out our homes and throw us in the dump.
I swear man if I got the chance to take them out I would. I wouldn’t even think about it
just BAM. And its fucking funny the way they think they’re all powerful gods or some shit.
Well, it's not funny. Know what I’m saying?
There’s so much going on right in front of their eyes that they don’t see. We want one
thing that is so ridiculous we have the audacity to expect. Human. Rights. But we’re not human
in the eyes of the law. I am not a convicted criminal, I am a political prisoner.
The amount of people they have shoved into these cells. And it don’t smell good either.
We only get one shower a week. I’d rather be in the box. No but that’s torture. I know brothers
that have been in the box for years at a time. They tell me they’d rather die a painful death.
You could get thrown in solitary for doing anything or doing nothing at all.
We put up a fight to work. They don’t pay us shit. That gets me sent to solitary a lot. You
know? Too many people in a cell, no beds left. Where do you go? The box.
They barely keep us alive just so we can keep living in hell. I’m talking our basic medical
needs ignored. Don’t even think about going to the dentist, let alone getting a pain pill. We live
in fear of getting sick. Not just a fever but a serious injury gets deliberately dismissed.
They get off on seeing us suffer.

Fast forward. The Riot.

 It starts as a protest. There must have been faulty welding in the gate at Times Square,
what we call the intersection of hallways that separated all four sections of the prison, because as
we all bang on the gate it falls down. That's what really gave us control. The guards are our
prisoners now.
We have thirty three demands. Nothing too crazy just asking for toilet paper and to have
more visiting hours. We take the guards out to the yard with homemade knives to their throats.
It’s just a threat. We don’t spill blood.
For five days this goes on. Negotiations. That Oswald fucker trying to talk us down.
Trying to “reason with us” as we ask to be treated as human beings. Twenty eight of our
demands get settled. Then, they do what they were told not to do.
We wake up to tear bombs going off. All the law enforcement up in the catwalks rapid
fire for nine straight minutes. It's like fireworks on the fourth of July. BAM BAM BAM.
“Surrender and you will not be harmed.”
“Surrender and you will not be harmed.”
Well there is nowhere to surrender to. How do I surrender if there is nowhere to go? I
throw my hands up but I get shot anyway they can’t see me in the fog. Hundreds of us, dead and
injured, pile on top of each other.
Just the trash that got taken out.