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Prose of a Con

Poetry and Prose by Russell Wardlow

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Inside

What The Hell

May 22, 2021 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

I almost killed myself
blah blah, what the hell

I ain’t ask for no one’s help
blah blah, what the hell

I can do bad by myself
yah yah, what the hell

don’t wish me well, wish me farewell
you see my life a living hell

I’m trapped inside this cell
blah blah, what the hell

don’t know if my sons read my mail
yah yah, what the hell

I think my mom went back to jail
blah blah, what the hell

they wish me well
like they can’t see my life is hell!

Filed Under: Inside, Trauma

I See You Mama

May 22, 2021 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

I see you mama
don’t be led astray by these deceitful people, nor let the distance mislead you mama
they judge when they see you, but I see a good heart haunted by demons and surrounding evil mama
people are as they judge, but don’t budge cuz you not evil mama
shhh, be peaceful mama
be resilient and let the spirit keep you mama
my heart is your temple until the day my name will build you a cathedral mama
let your karma be your armor mama
and let love arm ya mama
I know about trauma mama
it can make you a monster amongst mambas pythons and anacondas mama
I know how all the trauma you weather and weathered for better through whatever,
when most would have been conquered you acted unbothered with the strength of a father, despite the guilt on your conscience, you remained dauntless mama
in awe just watching how you topple all your problems and drama mama
I understood that your way of life is resilience under stressful situations and it impressed and imprinted on me so much that it became my name and mantra mama
but you gon make it
your struggles make you a saint, so your pain is sacred
so rise from out that basement
walk to the light and face it
because you are now armed like a bracelet
release yourself from those chains and hold strong to all your changes and your favorite savior and faith in your creator, despite pains craters, your belief is a cure and curator, just as your spirit defies your age making you ageless
go at the diversity of adversity with an equal passionate rage
as defiant as a lion crying or roaring through abhorrent torrents of torment and torture, imploring his aura, to take over the surrounding grounds and decor, as the jungles prevailing lord, its mane, like your hair, adding stories to his lore, his light shinning like prismed orbs, clawing and chewing through the gore, of hunting for more, embodied as prey, and as you pray, you are now all chance and opportunities predator
through all the bullshit, freedom and opportunity still taunts you like matadors
but even as you’re vulnerable you refuse to be torn into, split separated, and torn in two
because in these streets you graduated as a valedictorian, and don’t wish to take a moment back even in a dolor-ian
ma you’ve been forewarned, from your spawn born, and I’m imploring you, amongst everything swarming you
occupy your own universe you’ve mastered like a university
just enter into your adverse orpheum dorm or auditorium of abnormal emporiums taking it all in through your corneas
and be in awe and marvel
at all you mauled that tried to corner ya, all you seen, been through and accomplished with endorphins spiked like dorsal fins, you a shark in the sea, because like drake said, you’re in God form walking amongst immortal men, so remember that with each morning you’re yawning in

I was just a fetus
sometimes, I can almost remember the times, as if I was aware, conscious, and responsive to the expanse of my current memories of when you used to talk to me when I was inside of your stomach
you were only a young desperate alienated scared traumatized and hopeful woman
but throughout all you were going through, you stayed protective and prepared for what was coming
and you would say its OK baby, ‘we gon’ make it’

now I’m far from and outside of you
and the times have beaten you, trauma has still left its scars in a world that has alienated your strength and story, rendering you misunderstood and unappreciated to everyone else, as you are too proud to cry for help
when it’s what you do for others that has only made you feel like you had any semblance of worth in self, but now as a man, I’m whispering to you, we gon’ make it
we gon’ make it
we gon’ make it
ma! you gon make it!

and I know life has been the betrayed love that deceives and cheats on you, as you cater to a wounded heart that keeps on breakin and bleeding through
but ma! you gon’ make it!

I know the lows have the longest holds on you, and there’s no more reason for there to be struggles you have to shoulder through
you getting older and your passion may no longer smolder, as your bones begin to feel colder and your movements a bit slower, but I got a butterfly pictured inside my arm tucked like folder, and I see my Gemini butterfly fluttering to the sky
ingesting light like enzymes, serenaded by my rhymes
as I say, we gon make it
ma you gon make it

and I wish I could shield you, but I’m reminding you that I can feel you, and I know you needed to hear this in the worst way, so from your first son, like a happy birthday

but I just learned that possibly again this country and system failed you
I don’t even know what I can begin to tell you
I can’t call or email you
I’m in a cell that feels like a shell too
while learning of another one of your falls that they consider as fails and the only way that they rather help you
is to jail you
revocating your parole as there’s something deeper that ails you
while placing you in a cell, where you get to watch if they slide your mail through
it’s like watching you placed in a coffin as they hammer the last nail through

now where do I go from here?
hope and the promises I hear sound more like jokes, smoke and mirrors
it’s already hard to focus here
when the holes in here and the open ears, try to hold you here, and the road will veer, when you close and near, as atonement leers
bemoaning fears
thoughts roam the spheres like drones in air
swollen tears
no one cares
no sincere, person will take a second to phone you dear
tired
woman
speaking of gut feelings, I knew something was off, cuz I arised from your stomach…so I know what’s there
and you’re at your wit’s end
you couldn’t even correct one split end
even if you combed your hair
you’d have to cut it all off and start all over again
but how many restarts can you have in one existence, when problems seem like they never will end

many won’t, and one truly isn’t enough
but I see you mama, even as I’m tearing up
and I wish I could give you reasons to keep you from giving up

Filed Under: Inside, Love, Trauma

Reflecting to my Son

May 12, 2021 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

reflecting on where has my life gone
remembering everything that I ever did wrong
sometimes I rather quit trying to be strong
because chances take time, and patience takes too long

but then I remember you
and how all my past choices have injured you
even now, if I ever gave up how it would still hinder you
and I can’t be another stick in your finger that splinters you

though you may not understand it yet but resilience will center you
and giving up on love will make you winter blue
I used to be fractioned, fractured, flipping out, living upside down like the reciprocal
so I understand the sounds when I say I’ve changed and grown-up now, and why you may still be cynical

and I wish I could say we are identical, but you way better than me
so I’m glad that God makes us all different, because there’s a lesson in who you are not, and who you are trying to be
I’m a father trying to be seen like his son, and in that is how I can truly be free
it kinda sounds biblical, because you are the example of being better, in life even the children can lead

and I was living a lie most my life, but the love of you has helped me to truly be me
we have to live in our truths no matter the pain it may cause, otherwise we can’t breathe
I can say I’m changing for you, but honestly I had to change for my self first
I had to look in the mirror, through the lies and pain, and makeover my self worth

I’m no longer thin-skinned, but I remember the first time I felt yours
I was a living hell, but you had that kind of glowing beauty that would make a farther fight his way back from hell for
and we all have our stories, regrets, and wish things can be perfect
but it all works out for a higher reason, you may call it God’s plan, because everything has a purpose

it may not happen when we desire, but patience is divine
so we have to be OK with not trying to control time
because needing to control things can keep you in the blind
and there will be bigger things right in front of you that you’ve lost, hoping you will find

everything works for a higher good, within God’s design
so the hardest thing is loving and forgiving yourself, because we can get trapped in our own minds
which is the reason it was hard for me to write you, because I have been trapped in mine
but the writings on the wall, so its time I read the signs

Filed Under: Inside, Love

Whose Feelings are These?

May 9, 2021 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

I don’t know
if
if
if
if I have e
if I have emo
if I have emotions!?!
or am I just selfish
would I rather you feel for me
feel what I am incapable of feeling
so I can experience what it may look like through you
and then I can repeat the action
or maybe I don’t want the weight
the weight of feeling alone
and so I want you to feel like I do
I want you to feel with me
so you can share this weight I bear
because I can not possibly carry the responsibility
I do not wish to will myself to hold it all
is guilt an emotion?
what of avoidance?
or impassiveness or apathy?
is the intense desiring of love,
and companionship an emotion
or is it too, selfish?
is desire itself, or lust, an emotion?
or is it too, selfish?
is longing or loneliness an emotion?
or is it too, selfish?
is jade or expectations an emotion?
or is it too, selfish?
is empathy an emotion?
or is it just mimicking?
if I feel what you feel, because you feel
is it what I feel?
or is it my desire to feel what another feels,
because I can not
or do not feel it in myself?
is wanting to feel an emotion?
or am I just addicted to wanting to feel?
is feeling, addicting?
what of being numb?
I
I
I
I just don’t know anymore

Filed Under: Inside, Love, Spirit, Trauma

Living Hell

May 9, 2021 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

imagine
if hell is your worst day
repeated over and over
and life is a prison
encased in enclosures
and dying is inconvenient
denied any closure
then when I die
I’ll be living the same living hell
that I lived inside prison
so death is
what I live daily
over and over
Wardlow, Russell #78756
sentenced to a Living Hell

Filed Under: Inside, Trauma

Freed

May 8, 2021 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

trying to control what you do not understand, it is fear!
release me! from Yours
you have no control, besides of your
self, though you have No, self control
so you over-control, but even that
doesn’t give you more control
trying to control what wasn’t meant to be, controlled
is force, an abusive one
I reflect that your spirit is remote
on an island, you’ve casted it out
but it should function as your inland
compassing your mainland, as your controller
aligned with the compass of heart
then you would arrive from inside your head
as your mind will follow
offering up its control, placing you
the real of you, the real in you
the real you, in control
you have lived, out of control
your believed control-the illusion of permanence
truly possessing nothing outside of you
be captained by a heart in harmony, with your spirit
and your tongue will ride along
speaking trueness
creating freeness
and you shall become, less controlled
by the impermanent you believed, you controlled
unleashed from the binds of abuse
as force inherits the natural energy of
spoken word

Filed Under: Inside, Mercy

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Prose of a Con

Prose of a Con is a collection of Russell Wardlow’s prose and poetry written entirely behind bars. Through writings on family, spirituality, freedom, love, justice, redemption, and vulnerability, Russell seeks to show the humanity and hope of individuals like himself who are incarcerated.

Read More

  • Whose Mind is it Anyway June 30, 2022
  • Objects June 30, 2022
  • Same Thang, Different Name June 30, 2022
  • Optical Ill-lusions June 30, 2022
  • Hollow Symbols June 30, 2022

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