Paradox in Paradise

Living in the land of freedom

Where the jails all overflow

And the guilty thrive and prosper

While their victims never know

How they bully them and rob them

Of their children and the wealth

With enough to feed the people

Never caring for their health

And the ones who stand in power

Like the ones who stood before
Before the field is ever taken
Plan the outcome, know the score

Where the players die for nothing

Faceless pawns lost in the game

Someone's child is gone forever

Now a number not a name

So, the voices of the people

And their stories to be told

Fall on ears forever deafened

By the sound of counting gold

Has the dream become a nightmare

Is the truth forever lost
Do we find the price of freedom
Is never worth the cost

Life Without Parole

I have always kept my guard up

Hiding here behind these walls

But the loneliness wears on me

As I wander down these halls

To a graveyard filled with faces

Memories etched on every stone

No one's there to take their places

Feeling weary and alone

Empty rooms and hallowed footsteps

Silence echoes in the night

Tracing photographs and journeys

Silhouettes against the light

Recollections of some moment

From another place and time

In a prison here forever

Where the sentence fits the crime