It's hot in there! Prison and Feudalism

In San Pedro Sula


You’ve heard it’s dangerous in there
Coagulated odors, thick in minions
A fenced-in village of felons
Pigs and raccoons wander food stalls
Women sell fruit, tacos, rugs to keep you
From the ground, and themselves  

Do not cross the yellow Linea
De la Muerte, guards will take aim
Have their eyes gouged out
For crossing in.  Officials take a
Cut, secure the perimeter while
Fusty air indentures the body

Strongmen rule by edict and money
Setting rates from $fifty to $750 for
Cells, or sleep in the corridors
Squirt down toilets, trap rats, work
The hierarchy as serfs for a cement
Castle, heat-trapping its subjects

His name is Betancourt, elected
When the last was beheaded after raising
Rates and hanging men from rafters
Whose heart was fed to his dog, and
Tattooed faces from Teguchigalpa
Howled before they clubbed it too

Clerks never stop carrying in
Boxes of cigarettes, bananas, money
Beer is three times the rate outside
The walls.  Drugs or sex, the same
Madness, theft and sorrow, brawls
So you keep an empty at your head

Profits are distributed, $6K a year
To officials.  Warden says the state
Would starve them all if he didn’t
Give the go for profit--profits make
A little murder, beatings, fear
But keep the rest alive in here

Betancourt will provide eight security
To escort you on your tour of
Corrections Facility, San Pedro Sula
Careful of the puddles.  It never
Dries.  Built for 800—somewhere
Over 2,000 are waking up

Under the metal roof.  A woman
Hurries past.  You used to read
About these settings, always rolling
Hills with patchwork fields. Brueghel
Showed us happy figurines toiling
Swearing allegiance to the Lord

While bushido bowed its head and
Caravans brought riches to harems
Who clutched silks to their breasts
So Samurai and swordsmanship
And horsemen and round tables
Held court in a kingdom of stone

Today’s kingdoms reign thru fried
Chicken fumes mixed with sweat and
Kickbacks and strongmen clapping 
Raised hands to end a man's
Debts while hip hop stridently bangs
Forth against cinder block

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