The sally port opens to clean grass trees, birdsong, a raised pond, quadrangle guarded by ancient buildings open to blue evening sky, where water birds hungry for home careen over crenellated walls splash down in waiting pond.
Prodigals, fourteen siblings Once nested here as ducklings, now Return with friends—forty ducks swim In parade welcomed by blue shirted men glad as fathers with hearts flung wide rejoicing in the soft wild center of San Quentin State Prison.