A Mistake | Teen Ink

A Mistake

June 18, 2009
By Edward Meagher BRONZE, Boston, Massachusetts
Edward Meagher BRONZE, Boston, Massachusetts
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

I look at him and I think

The thought, it’s stuck in my mind

It’s all my fault, I am the one to blame

I glance at my baby strapped down to a cold hard bed, like a frog strapped down to be dissected

He is just laying there in his orange jumpsuit

If only I could have afforded his meds, none of this would have happened, I can’t get that out of my mind

Sitting there he’s staring at us as tears race down his pale white face

So many thoughts running through my mind

He couldn’t ‘ove done it, he was with me

They say there is no proof, I’ll give ‘em proof

As the thoughts move faster and faster

My pulse begins to pound, I ball up inside, my skin turning from white to red like the morning and evening sky

I see the real bad guy with his syringe and my heart begins to pound

Glancing at my family dressed in black, tears being to burst out of my eyes,

Tears wanting to stay in but come out anyway

We cry in so much pain that we can make no noise

Reaching over grasping their hands and giving them hugs

Trying to be strong, I collapse like a building imploding in on itself

Shaking from the emotions built up inside, like the water built up in a damn

I see him, the grim reaper, he walks closer, closer to my schizophrenic son

Not knowing what he has done, only knowing the consequences of another man’s actions, not his own

‘T’ minus three minutes and I can’t bare it, I burst into rage yelling at anyone I can

Then the cops grab me and hold me back, standing there I am sweating out of breath

‘T’ minus one minute and I can’t breathe anymore

Looking at the clock the ticks are echoing in my head

The second hand moving faster than ever

And then, it all stops.

The author's comments:
Hello, I am writing to you concerning a poem that I would like to submit to your organization. Luckily I have not been affected by the death penalty, however I feel that it is a topic which is very scary. I felt that the death penalty was a good topic to write about because it creates and enormous canvas of ideas to write about.

I visited various websites a few weeks ago. All of these websites pertained to the death penalty. When first starting out I used google.com to help find articles and facts about the death penalty. I found some websites such as wikipedia.com and pictures, however there were not many reliable sources. So I turned to the online-data base of my Boston Public Library. I used all of these search engines to help me find some real life stories about the death penalty and how it affected the family. I found one article on the online-data base which had a story that really stuck out to me. The story was about a man who was sentenced to the death penalty because his schizophrenic disease led to him involuntary murdering another man. This is the story that my poem was written about.

The death penalty is an issue which is still present in our modern day world. The death penalty although more rare than it was in past years is still apparent in our society today. Hundreds of people die from the death penalty and their families are severely hurt. The death penalty is an idea which is inhumane and takes away a mans human rights. When the death penalty is enforced instead of just one family mourning the death of their loved one, two families are mourning the death of two different loved ones. This creates a lot of pain which can be relieved a little bit by just imprisoning the convict. Also there have been some cases in which a victim of the death penalty was proven innocent after he/she has already been expired. This is not good because innocent people are dying for things they did not do, wasting a life. The death penalty can be avoided with prison and is an inhumane act.

I have attached the "persona poem" which I wrote from the perspective of the father of a person being executed in the death penalty. With my research I got a better understanding of what it was like for the family member of a victim of the death penalty. I made multiple drafts of this poem. In class we read our poems to our class mates and got feedback from them and used that to hep us revise more. I tried to focus on getting the voice of mood of the poem to be realistic and authentic to someone, whom was a family member of a victim of the death penalty writing the poem. I also tried to in cooperate some similes and alliterations into the poem.

Thank you for taking the time to read my poem, I hope that you enjoy it. I hope your organization has a lot of success in the future.

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