from July 2005 Issue

It's Labeled Hell..Until

By Annie Nichols

A prison cell's not cast from steel,
Not build from walls which men can feel,
Nor kewn from stone, thick and cold,
You must look deeper to behold.

“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,”
Said the Lord to apostles as they slept,
We all have gone astray like sheep,
And for this cause the widows weep.

Jesus said, Cry not for me,
But for your children make your plea,
For by my blood they must be free.
A man's in prison 'til he sees.

And so they'll pierce me to the tree.
I'll resurrect in days of three,
For first one dies to be made free,
And then he'll live everlastingly.

(Editor's note: Annie's poems first appeared in the Freedom Within publication of the Church of Christ Prison Ministry, Joliet, IL. in 1975. At that time she was an inmate at the Women's Reformatory, Indianapolis, IN.)