Prisoner 190422

The alarm buzzes

Signaling the door ready to open

Slowly the lock releases

Opening the door

And for the first time in 9 years

He steps out into the sunlight

It bathes him and he reveres in its glow

Hesitantly, he takes one step forward

Half hoping no one will recall him

The other half stuck to what he has known

For the last decade

Hi fears only dissipate

When the gate closes behind him

A stern guard peering at him disapprovingly

From the watchtower above.

His prison days are over.

He has committed hundreds of crimes

But he vividly remembers the first time

He remembers the anticipation prior

How he was filled with trepidation and tremor

In equal measure

He remembers the seconds leading to the act

The power he felt over

The powerlessness of his victim

And afterwards

The euphoria of getting away with it.

Hundreds of crimes later

He still remembers the first

For you never forget your first

He always used to promise himself

That his next would his last

But all of that became a mirage

When the power overcame him

And his next would always be his previous

Violence darkens your soul

Until light has no place left

And after countless crimes

His life had been reduced

To a blackened shell

Voraciously seeking salvation

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That’s what he had been reduced to

No one knew his name in prison

No one cared

All they knew

Was the number printed on his clothes

In the last 8 years

In moments of sheer despair,

Even his foggy brain couldn’t recall his name.

The speaker was a short guy

He had been frequenting the prisoner

For the last three years

Talking, beseeching, encouraging

For people to change their ways

“everyday is a clean slate,

To write the rest of your story”

Was his mantra

He struck the prisoner

As a man who understood pain

In its untainted raw form.

He made the prisoner believe

In the birth of a life he wanted to experience

Which was the only glimmer of hope that kept him alive

And now as he stands

Prison gates closed behind him

A wide tarmacked road ahead

Baiting him to walk on it

And start a new future

He contemplates his choices

Walk ahead or retract his steps

Carve a path into uncertainty

Or walk back to familiarity

He starkly realizes

He has been in this position 100 times before

But he chose wrongly.

He takes a deep breath.

Lungs full of fresh air

He raises his right foot

And takes a step forward.