Alma Apretada
Pablo Neruda

Hemos perdido incluso este crepúsculo. Nadie sierra nosotros esta
tarde tomados de la mano mientras que la noche azul cayó en el mundo.

He visto de mi ventana que la fiesta de la puesta del sol en la
montaña distante remata.

Un pedazo del sol se quemó a veces como una moneda en mi mano.

Le recordé con mi alma apretado en esa tristeza el míos que usted
sabe.

¿Dónde entonces estaba usted? ¿Quién estaba allí? ¿Decir qué?
¿Por qué el conjunto de amor vendrá en mí repentinamente cuando soy
triste y sentirle está ausente lejano?

El libro cayó eso cerrado siempre en el crepúsculo y mi suéter azul
rodados como un perro lastimado en mis pies.

Siempre, usted retrocede siempre con las tardes hacia el crepúsculo
que borra las estatuas.


*****

Tennessee's 'Little Houdini':

Mr. Gay's much-publicized prison-break in 2007 to reach his dying mama's side failed, but only after he led authorities on a five-state, five-day chase that ended with him being arrested driving the country singer Crystal Gayle's stolen tour bus in Florida. Now police around the flyspeck burgs of northern Tennessee are back on full alert after another audacious escape by Gay in Kennesaw, Ga., on Tuesday.

*****

Kids For Cash, is a particularly egregious story about judges accepting kickbacks from some detention centre owner to lock up juvees for profit:

Last month the judge involved, Mark Ciavarella, and the presiding judge of the juvenile court, Michael Conahan, pleaded guilty to having accepted $2.6m (£1.8m) from the co-owner and builder of a private detention centre where children aged from 10 to 17 were locked up.

The cases of up to 2,000 children put into custody by Ciavarella over the past seven years - including that of Transue - are now being reviewed in a billowing scandal dubbed "kids for cash". The alleged racket has raised questions about the cosy ties between the courts and private contractors, and about the harsh treatment meted out to adolescents.

Alerted by Laurene Transue, the Juvenile Law Centre in Wilkes-Barre began to uncover scores of cases in which teenagers had been summarily sent to custody by Ciavarella, dating as far back as 1999. One child was detained for stealing a $4 jar of nutmeg, another for throwing a sandal at her mother, a third aged 14 was held for six months for slapping a friend at school.

Half of all the children who came before Ciavarella had no legal representation, despite it being a right under state law. The Juvenile Law Centre has issued a class action against the two judges and other implicated parties in which it seeks compensation for more than 80 children who it claims were victims of injustice.

*****

Have to say, Todd Snider is one of the more interesting guitarists/singers/songwriters/storyteller I've heard in awhile: