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About Time is the national newspaper for Australian prisons and detention facilities

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ISSUE NO. 19

February 2026

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Poetry

Less

By

John

John writes from a prison in VIC.

Jonny Gios via Unsplash

The outside on the inside

Steals passion for fun

When arrows come from far and wide

Facing the new shiny sun

with dignity

There are ribbons in the fire

And lives still painfully on hold

Beneath the folds of desire

The barred windows still remain cold

indefinitely

When recognition cannot be found

Or trust and pride have no sound

Then those minds roll ‘round and round

They cannot find any common ground

respectively

So the outcasts may play together

Live trapped among the barbed wire

Unmasked souls on a sorry tether

Can never form a knowing gyre

insensitivity

For when lives are flung aside

And battle is all they know

Then worth will always hide

Awake for some endless show

expressivity

The outsider on the inside

Wears the mask of the alone

In crowds of waste and glory

They often forget about Home

eternally

The outside on the inside

Steals passion for fun

When arrows come from far and wide

Facing the new shiny sun

with dignity

There are ribbons in the fire

And lives still painfully on hold

Beneath the folds of desire

The barred windows still remain cold

indefinitely

When recognition cannot be found

Or trust and pride have no sound

Then those minds roll ‘round and round

They cannot find any common ground

respectively

So the outcasts may play together

Live trapped among the barbed wire

Unmasked souls on a sorry tether

Can never form a knowing gyre

insensitivity

For when lives are flung aside

And battle is all they know

Then worth will always hide

Awake for some endless show

expressivity

The outsider on the inside

Wears the mask of the alone

In crowds of waste and glory

They often forget about Home

eternally

‘Love is Rebuilding My Life’

By Phillip

There’s irony, hypocrisy, fallacy, a vast ocean of distance to cross. The “saint”, the “sinner”, it’s lunacy, that the ignorant could save the lost.

Creative

ISSUE NO. 22

2 MIN READ

Methfairytale

By Karie

I’m not belle of the ball, not the very least, but we have something in common, I’m in love with a beast. But the beast is not a person but a drug that I call meth, I’ve been talking to myself for hours, I’m running out of breath.

Creative

ISSUE NO. 22

1 MIN READ

Nostalgia

By Dennis

Nostalgia is a gentle haze, a soft and fading, golden maze, where time itself begins to blur, and memory’s touch is sweet and pure.

Creative

ISSUE NO. 22

1 MIN READ

Art From Inside

By Lanie

Our team was blown away by this beautiful painting.

Creative

ISSUE NO. 21

1 MIN READ