Rimutaka Prison: Poems and Prose From a Human Landfill
By L. E. Scott

PRISON TIME

Not since my time in the American War in Vietnam

have I known so much fear

about tomorrow

 

Since 2012, African American Poet/Writer L. E. Scott has been caught in the net of the NZ justice system. The poems and prose in Rimutaka Prison – A Human Landfill reflect his experiences over the course of being charged, tried, convicted, imprisoned, and released and give voice to the impact these experiences have had and continue to have on his life. He has always maintained his innocence of the charges for which he was convicted.

 

L. E. Scott has lived through many wars in his life: the cotton fields of Cordele, Georgia, Jim Crow America, the wretched education system, the duplicitous face of white racism in the North, the American War in Vietnam, where being twice wounded saw him receive two Purple Hearts, the killing fields of American cities, where police officers replaced soldiers. All left their wounds and battle scars, as has this latest one.

 

Notwithstanding these life wars, L. E. Scott is, as the old folks would say, still clothed in his right mind and not bent over.