I went to the prison last night. We had a beautiful class. Our leader asked us to imagine “A day in the life of…” It could be anyone or anything and then we had to guess who or what they were. One woman was Michele Obama. Another was the camera in the dorm (a hilarious monologue). Another was a crash test dummy. As always, it was a rich class. Full of honest disclosures, laughter, love. Yes. I love these women.

The prompt I pulled today was: Four words & one adverb. I chose these words: Prison, freedom, ocean, storm, gracefully. And then I decided to write the poem without using any of those words while trying to capture their essences. Here goes:

She said
I feel comfortable in here
She said
I have everything I need
She said
My family puts money in my account
I have my tablet
I can go to commissary and get food
She said
It feels wrong to be comfortable
I said
You can’t walk out the gate
I said
Your day begins at 2 am whether you like it or not
I said
You are watched 24/7 by cameras and guards
You are strip searched
Your home is your bunk and anything in it can be taken away
I said
You get to use this time to steady yourself
Comfort is an embrace
We navigate to and
From.