Art and Poetry by Vincent Brauford

She Wants
By Vincent Brauford

She wants She needs She wants a big house with a big family, with a man that loves her for everything she is. She is? Okay I’ll tell you who she is. She is a beautiful Latina, fighting depression, not able to love herself, because she don’t like her physical appearance. So she’s afraid to really open herself up to the free world, so she seeks men in prison, that’s not really there for her. She needs to see, that a lie is easier to believe than the truth. She needs to see that, when a man puts your number on a prison wall, he has no love, or respect for you. She needs love from a man that’s willing to build a life with her, not just take and never give. She needs…she NEEDS…SHE NEEDS REAL LOVE. She wants to believe there’s still a chance at love, with a man that has never done anything for her, but put her on hold, for other women. She’ll wait for his calls, after being blocked on the app, for months no contact. She wants love so badly, she’ll degrade herself just to feel wanted, by a man that shows your photos in prison to other men. She needs…She needs…she needs to see she’s worth more than her body can offer, because a man can never give you the love, you should show for yourself. She needs to notice, life will never be what we want or need it to be perfectly, so we have to accept imperfections as a gift, not anything less. She needs, she needs…and I just want the best for her.

Tik Tok Black Drop
By Vincent Brauford

Disrespectful, hateful, scorned woman of color. I really can’t see what made me, make you a mother. Disrespect me by having my son call me, by my first name. And when your friends come over, you talk down to me to shame me. I’m never what ah lame be.

Ooohhhh wow, look at now, Tik Tok, black drop, I swear I don’t need it. Please. I swear I don’t want it, I swear I can do better tho, that’s why I’m like whatever tho.

Damn why did I stop dating only white girls? I guess to other black skin, I was denying my blackness. And at this, most haters wannah get active.

Ooohhhh wow, look at now, Tik Tok, black drop, I swear I don’t need it. Please. I swear I don’t want it, I swear I can do better tho, that’s why I’m like whatever tho.

Afraid of Love
By Vincent Brauford

She tells me she needs me, doing everything to please me. So when I pull up I give her all of me, all of me, and so I’d thought until…until she’d told me she needed more from me. “What else could there be?” I’d asked and she’d said. “I wanna be your wife!”

My heart drops, oh I feel like I’m about to lose everything, because everything changes when people get that wedding ring. I love her but I’m not in love because I’m afraid of love.

I don’t want to hurt you. And I don’t want to waste your time, so let’s find the time to get in the right mind and understand, my love is enough. But she don’t want to hear that, she tells me, “You better put a ring on!” She’s in her feelings, I can’t even be honest, while she’d said. “Love me right or leave me alone!”

My heart drops, oh I feel like I’m about to lose everything, because everything changes when people get that wedding ring. I love her but I’m not in love because I’m afraid of love.

Write a Prisoner

By Vincent Bradford

You’ve been waiting all your life to find, someone to love you outside of time, meaning forever when our bodies are gone! And it’s just our souls loving, feeling life was nothing but a long moments of pain! You’ve been through so much that stained your mind, but this time you’ll find…this love is real!

I’ve been waiting for someone for years to build my life with…but that letter never came, so I’ve never known her name! My only letters are from old flames that wanted more to burn, but I’ve been born under water, watching the world burn around me!

Have I been alone in this cell so long that I don’t feel alone? I pick up the phone merely trying to find that my mind has been gone! Meaning I’ve been lost inside of these thoughts, telling myself. “I’m not in prison!” People remind me of this by showing
me…life moves on, and I’ve been gone!

So I think of this! Write a prisoner to show them they exist! So they’ll feel their life is worth something outside these prison walls!

Cutting Blood
By Vincent Braufird

Cutting blood ties with my family! When I’m in my darkest moments, I can’t call on nobody for help! These prison walls… These fucking prison walls won’t stop my ambitions, in becoming an accomplished artists!

I’ve been begging my sister for help for over 8 years! From this, I’ve had tears! I’ve broken my hands on faces of other prisoners, merely because they’d laughed at my failures, in not getting my art out there! I’m cutting blood ties!

My life don’t mean anything to those whom say they’re there for me! Lies! Lies! “LIES!” Hunger pains has shown me I’m alone! And I’m accepting this reality…so I’m cutting blood ties….

I’m cutting blood ties!

The Deep Lies
By Vincent Brauford

You were never in this to help someone
You needed love but love didn’t believe
In itself, so how could love exist for you?
Love can’t love with the breath of
Life, but saying I loved someone felt nice!
Lies! Lies! All I have to say is some
Deep lies. She loves everyone? That’s the
deep lie.

Don’t need, don’t need it! You say you cry
Because you’re alone, but you’re never
Alone! I am really alone because of you!
11 years I’d only has you! And I’d put everything
On hold, just to be there for you! Wasted
Time, from a genius mind!

The deep lie is lie I’m sorry! I guess what
I had was real love but I’ve never known
Love so how can I truly love someone and
know what I’m doing is right? I guess
you telling me you needing more showed me
I’d waster years, years trying to make you
happy!