That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for July 04, 2024

My original comment: “If I hang onto this ring, use my feet to climb the wall and kick out those bars, I will be a free man. Or maybe I will just warm myself in the sunlight.”

This had been a Friday (weekend) Masterpiece in 2021, so I wrote a great many different responses. My first one was inspired by the prisoner’s red shirt and black trousers. (Sorry about the length.)

/// For fifty full star-years or more

he’d paced every inch of the floor;

had stared at the wall

and tried to recall

the life he’d been living before.

/// His shipmates had left him behind,

alone, for his captors to find.

They’d locked him away

and forced him to stay

imprisoned here, losing his mind.

/// He gazed out the window with dread,

remembering what Bones had said

to Jim Kirk and to Spock

(as he lay numbed by shock)

“That redshirt? Let’s go, Jim, he’s dead!”

/// Ever since his crew beamed up for good,

to this window he’d pace, where he stood,

searching poison-green skies

for that ship, Enterprise.

(He would watch it blown up, if he could.)

/// To make an escape on his own,

he wished there was more he had known:

like exobiology,

alien psychology,

or how to repair a flip-phone.

For this next one, I tried to think of famous historical prisoners with long gray beards:

/// John Brown planned the raid on Harpers Ferry,

but they faced a well-armed adversary.

Captured when the raid failed,

Brown, impaled and then jailed,

cursed all slave-holders and military.

/// Reenacting an historic battle,

(it was one about humans as chattel),

Dusty gained some renown

‘cause he looked like John Brown,

so he drove all the way from Seattle.

/// In a jail he posed at Harpers Ferry

looking glum, though inside he felt merry.

He peered out through the bars

looking for movie stars.

(He was hoping to sight Halle Berry.)

/// Halle Berry’d been signed up to play

Harriet Tubman for Hulu last May.

She’d film on location

and Dusty’s vocation

gave him hope they would cross paths that day.

“It’s bad enough being thrown in prison, but now I have to be painted by a guy that sounds like he should be developing cameras.”

And another:

/// He had hoped the jail door’d be unlatched

if he twisted this ring he had snatched,

but the man, nearly blind,

couldn’t see that behind

him, the ring had a large bull attached.

/// In this fight he was clearly outmatched.

It came close, but he wasn’t dispatched.

By the bull he was thrown,

(hurling bone against stone),

thus his arm became semidetached.

/// He called out as he lay ’neath the grate

“I did nothing to earn this grim fate.

There were not any trials.

They ignored my denials."

He’s A Prisoner (here) of the State.

I’m sorry. Please, dear, let me back in and I’ll never leave the seat up again.

The Alabama high school librarian who refused to remove Judy Blume from the shelves reconsiders his courageous decision..

They said, “one if by land, two if by sea”. But what was I supposed to do?

In the Possible Near Future: Despite the eventual consequences of Trump’s 2024 re-election and resulting campaign of Retribution, Special Council Jack Smith still thinks he was doing the right thing …

“Shut up in there! Nobody’s ever going to like a song called ‘Jailhouse Rock’!”

An unsuccessful audition for the part of Otis on “The Andy Griffith Show”.

‘Highly unusual for there to be a line for the Mens’ room, but…every now and then….

The other inmates couldn’t understand why he was dabbing in celebration since he, too, was incarcerated.

A Prisoner of the State: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:Prison cells in art" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Brave, and Yandex search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found, and once there find the text string Eastman, and click its link for info and links that point to more info about this roughly jumbo envelope size painting. 

Again, a larger strip image is also shown by merely clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s THROWBACK THURSDAY: MASTERPIECE #2740 (7/2/21) (July 3, 2024) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment. I have added a comment and reply there pointing to info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, 4 works by him have been used here (5 times total, including this Throwback Thursday repeat), the July 2, 2021, strip being its first use. The October 1, 2019, strip has the prior by him.

Cool album cover. :)

BIDEN AFTER THE DEM. CONVENTION.

The Pennywise origin story. It was never that scary until he put the makeup on.

The prisoner of the state/

was resigned to his horrible fate./

He was dreadfully fed/

(Only water and bread !)/

on the bright side – he was losing weight…

The state of the prisoner: grim./

His prospects: at best – downright dim./

Still, he has to admit/

he enjoys it a bit/

Since he’s never before been so slim..

Too many comments from the original. A link for those interested …

httpS://Www.Gocomics.Com/that-is-priceless/2021/07/02?ct=v&cti=1249643

One of my original posts …

Oh good! The thrush is here!

“Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin’s Day will shine upon the key-hole.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit.

“It’s a beautiful day out there, but I’ve got my nice dark and moldy cell, so I think I’ll stay in side and stare at the walls.”

now that is a substantial penalty for early withdrawal!