Death Row Pennsylvania
               
Kevin Pelzer wrote the following as a tribute to Dr Evelyn Fairbanks, who began to write to Kevin Pelzer
as a result of his pen pal listing on the CCADP page.  Evelyn died in the third year of their correspondence.  


TELLING IT FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP  
By Kevin D Pelzer

In the midst of a storm
        with my life in a state of turmoil...
God sent me an Angel,
She came astride a stallion
        of the finest royal breed.

Here inside this grotto of despair
        she worked of her order...,
orders from the most high.
She stripped away my hurt,
eased my pain,
restored my hope,
she gave me a feather
        that turned to wings
kissed the air
            and my dreams took flight.

She was a healer and a  teacher
        a teacher of the way that have been long lost.
She was demanding in her ways
        accepting only my very best.

At night, she slept upon my perfume sheets
        while I slept on the floor
at her feet.
This lasted all but a season
        for soon it grew too cold
    so we slept together.

We would lay in each others arms,
            day and night - together,
hours and hours of pure love...,
creating, envisioning, and being,
    but most of the time just listening...
just listening to each other,
sometimes without speaking a single word...
        of one heart beat.

She and I,
        we kissed each other syllables
deeply penetrated each other verbs
        until our interjections became one
one of a conjunction
     a conjunction that fronted
fronted double combound words
words that was so enriched
        that they came with triple meaning.

In her knowledge she often told onto me,
"That it was a price to pay
    to be physically loved in the
early morning hours when the
body will not hold the voice
    of yet another convulsion that
we brought to each other bodies"

She said that it was a price to pay
    for nothing this good
came without a price.
    Then my love, I shall pay
    a thousand life times
to live one moment with you...,
I always replied.

So on and on we lived
    we lived, loved and learnt
we held hands and talked.
    For one year, it was just our world.
Then our friends and families came !
Came on strong....
        wanting to know
            what we got going on.

The closer they came
    the brighter our light shone.
We was both afraid
        afraid that the outside world
a world full of sin and Judas Judgment
    would not see the purity
of our friendship.
Plus!  How could we ask them to understand
    that which we could not explain.
To each other...,
O' we was Gods''...,
we was keepers of the gates...
            blood of blood..,
    King and Queens..,
            one.

But she was to them
        Momma and Grandmomma
she was well educated
        a valued member of the community - a leader
folks called on her from communities around the country
        all seeking advice
her work as a poet and writer has been printed around the world
    `Professor called on her for lectures.

Yet here she was
        here she was loving me.
Yet here I was
        here I was loving her.
She in love
    and being loved
by a convicted killer
        condemn to death
        on death row.
Can you hear the talking !
    Talk,talk, talk and talk
folk love to talk about other folk...
He must want something from her !
She must lost her way!
Yeah ! Yeah her got her lost!
She must be getting old!
He taken advantage of her!
She old enough to be his momma!
He know she almost old as his Grandmomma!

    Dr Evelyn Fairbanks and I
we were afraid of a lot of things
which made us at times
afraid of each other.
we began to sing,
        the dew at dawn on the lilies.
We sung so loud and joyously
        singing was good.
We sung and our love grew
    but with our love song came the blues...

Evelyn kept telling me that
        there was a price to pay...,
but I wouldn't hear of it.
You see,
    death and I,
we done came face to face
        to many times.
So I tried to out run death !
I ran and ran
    and when my Queen couldn't run
    I took her up in my arms
just as I promised her we would.

The faster we ran
    The faster death waged war with life.
Loved blossomed in its truth
        as truth always does.
And death,
    death do what death does!
It cheated us.

The Lord reached down
    and took Evelyn from my arms...,
Took her home where she could breathe - again.

Even from heaven,
    Evelyn still bless me...
and I keep on running to meet the Mountain Top,
where I gotta tell it
O' I gotta tell the world
    'bout this here good love.

By Kevin Pelzer BC
175 Progress Drive
SCI Greene Death Row
Waynesburg, PA
15370 USA

                                               

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