Rick's Poetry: Parole - May 30, 2001

Parole
(c) May 30, 2001

No more bars of steel
No more peckerwood
I've had all I need
of prison brotherhood

No more concrete walls
No more wars of race
The fighting never stops
Hate consumes this place

No more bowing down
To screws in green jumpsuits
Turn-keys of the system
With lead filled attitudes

No cussing out the mirror
No self-wrought missery
No kicking my own shadow
I will learn respect for me

Parole will come in days
Freedom waits outside
Free from wreched evil
Resting firmly on it's pride

When the gates behind me
The clock will start again
The world will be my cell
I've been set up to win

by Ricky D. McKean

Rick McKean (1962-2011)

Rick McKean graduated a track star from Capital High School in Boise, Idaho. After serving in the U.S. Navy with the construction batallion and operating heavy machinery, and time in abroad in Guam, Rick was honorably discharged and took residence in Oxnard, California, near the naval base.

After working several years in various trades, including light aircraft maintenance, locksmith and auto repair, Rick worked for a paper pulp recycling plant in Oxnard until the late 90s. Expressing his love for the ocean, and despite physical limitations, he took up scuba diving and enjoyed good times with friends exploring the Channel Islands off the Ventura coastline. Rick suffered from depression and alcoholism.

The poetry on this site was written in 2001-2002 while an inmate at California Correctional Facility, Salinas, California. After parole, Rick again took residence in Oxnard, purchased a boat, and lived on the water in Channel Islands Harbor. Continuing his appreciation of nature and the environment, Rick worked in harbor maintenance, patrolling the harbor and collecting/dislodging debris that had washed in from sea.

Rick continued to live on his boat and attend AA meetings and treatment programs, and eventually was issued a driver's license and bought a car. In 2010, he drove his car to his home state of Idaho and visited his family whom he had not seen in many years. Despite numerous physicial limitations, Rick continued to live his life to the fullest extent, including handling nearly all of the maintnenance of his boat/home.

In late 2010, Rick bought a new computer, with the intention to publish these poems online. In January of 2011, Rick suffered an untimely death where he sustained a head injury repairing his boat, lost balance, and fell into the water, and succombed to the cold temperatures.

This blog contains Rick's Poetry.

(c) Ricky Dale McKean 2001, 2001

Rick's Poetry

Parole - May 30, 2001

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