Poetry from the inside

José Ernesto Medellin
March 4, 1975 - August 5, 2008
Rest in Peace

A Gangster's Prayer

Heavenly Father, please hear me tonight.
I need so much guidance to live my life right.
Sometimes the pressure is too hard to bear.
I often wonder if anyone does care.
How can I wake up and face a new day
Knowing I must live this crazy way?

Heavenly Father, forgive all my sins.
Give me the strength to resist the wild life I desire.
Help me escape temptation and the fire.
Please help me family whose eyes silently plead for me
Not to do wrong, and they pray for me.
God bless our mothers who cry every night,
Worrying we'll be killed by someone in a fight.

Heavenly Father, please, answer my prayers.
Please let me know that you are listening up there.
When will it all end? What's it all for?
To prove my homies “I'm down: I'm hardcore?”
Sometimes I wonder how I will die...
By a bullet or a knife in my side?

Heavenly Father, please hear me tonight.
Show me the way Lord. Show me the light.
Give my heart peace so I won't have to fight.
Thank you for your forgiveness, and for still
Being there. Most of all thank you for
Hearing my prayer...

Juan, MO

Eric, Death Row, TX

When you are old

When you are old and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this card
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face,

And bending down besides the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Juan, MO

Eric, Death Row, TX