Fr Brosnan later admitted observing how the physical and psychological
brutality of Pentridge’s H-Division had turned bike thieves into murderers.
                                         Fr. Peter Norden, SJ, 13 April 2003

he complained that the tucker

wasn't fit for pigs     and men's privileges lost

for the slightest breach

and for these     they cuffed him down at curfew

dragged him screaming to the peter*

and beat him bruised and sodden

as an over-ripened peach

just another drunken koori

doin' a très+ for a saturday stoush

before fate stepped in and sentenced him

to take a stand for justice

before justice grew him up

and spat him out

there'll be no monuments for bobby

no accolades apart from this     to recall those times

I'd listened from my cell     night after night

to his tormentors beating

as he bravely dressed them down

for him     there was eventual release

but not from that inner-desecration

that blistered by degrees     till eventually

it consumed him      flourishing in that place

where his soul used to be

reflected through the tautness of eyes

that refused to shed tears     by the hate tattooed

across fingers poised in a clenched fist

and the downturn of a bitter curl

beating after beating had carved

into the corner of a lip     that one stormy night

fixed a shotgun on two old salvos

and callously emptied the clip

*prison slang word for h division
+ “ for three months