My Teenage Escape From Alcatraz

I wrote the following poem around the end of Junior High. It was something I did at home just for fun, and I really have no recollection as to why I chose this odd topic in the first place. Perhaps it was a slow day, and I was lying around fantasizing about taking up crime as a vocation after I graduated from High School.

Who knows? Perhaps I wrote it after watching one of Edward G. Robinson films so popular in the fifties. Or maybe it was inspired by other tough guys of the era like James Cagney or Humphrey Bogart. All I know is, that at least on paper, I accomplished something never before proven to have been achieved in the entire history of American crime.

It’s refreshing to look back to a time when my youthful imagination made doing most ANYTHING seem more than just a possibility. In those days I could easily imagine myself flying like Superman, dispensing justice like the Lone Ranger or The Shadow, walking unnoticed like the Invisible Man, or defying the odds and escaping from a penal fortress with a smirk on my face and extended middle finger to show my disdain for authority. I guess that’s the beauty of being YOUNG.

These days, however, my imaginative forays are far less adventurous than having “super abilities” or escaping from a place like Alcatraz. They focus on more immediate things, and share none of the glamour of my youthful reveries. They include whether my blood pressure will be low enough to avoid being chastised by the doctor, or whether I’ll be able to get up without assistance after sitting too long while waiting for my ten prescriptions at the Costco Pharmacy. Yes, these days I find myself escaping TO reality. Ahhh, what a difference fifty or so years make ……!



Escape From Alcatraz

The night was hot and sticky
As I crept along the wall.
My image in the moonlight
Cast a shadow ten feet tall.

My heart was wildly pulsing,
In my hand, a .38,
Stood poised for sudden action
As I tiptoed towards the gate.

I passed the good old rock pile
Then stopped and glancing there,
Remembered all my toil and sweat
Amidst the stifling air.

Then turning, I stalked forward,
Ever closer to my goal.
And all the time my shattered nerves
Caused havoc in my soul.

Then all at once I saw them,
Three guards upon the wall.
Beside them a machine gun
Which made my insides crawl.

I darted through the shadows
To a spot close by the three.
My gun began to fiercely bark
As they gaped down at me.

Moans were heard as two guards fell
Down to the earth below.
The other swung his gun around,
And bullets flew like blinding snow.

My mind became a whirling mass
As lights and sirens blared.
I ran, and throwing wide the gate
Beheld the freedom I had snared.

I ran and then with lightning speed,
I dove into the bay.
The icy waters swallowed me
And I was on my way.

I fought through all those choppy waves
Which frolicked in the night,
And when the searching light came near
I had to dive from sight.

For three long hours I stayed afloat,
To make that safety shore,
And when I reached its sandy beach
My fears were gone forever more.

As the light of dawn ascended
And I walked the road to town,
I stepped upon some orange peels
And fell, crash, to the ground.

My head bounced off a boulder
Which stood along the way,
And when the two collided,
I left this world, and dead I lay.

There is a simple ending
To my tale of fear and woe,
Right now I am the foreman
Of a rock pile down below.

My find escape from Alcatraz
Was messed up by some mug…
And just because he had to be
A stupid LITTER BUG!

© 2-25-2011