Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

I dreamed about you today
Like all my yesterdays looking
forward to my tomorrows.

I dreamed a dream that wasn’t real
for you were gone some thirty years
ago, lost to me in the stages of
time gone by.

I dreamed about you today
that I got a letter in the mail,
long overdue, lost in the storms
of time, finally to make its
destination.

You said you still loved me, but
had to move on. Couldn’t be
anchored down to Life without the
possibility of parole.
Saw no future in that, and
it was true.

I dreamed about you today, that
I was still there, eyes meeting
eyes, the sweet smells of your
perfume, and love vibrating
and things spoken without
words.

But the guards rapped the
bars and the dream I
dreamed about you today
was lost like every moment
in my day; to the reality
of doing Life without
the possibility of parole.

 
Disclaimer: The views in this article are those of the author. The Prison Journalism Project has verified the writer’s identity and basic facts such as the names of institutions mentioned. The work is lightly edited but has not been otherwise fact-checked.

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Kenneth M. Key

Kenneth M. Key is a writer and contributing artist incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois. He was born and raised in South Shore, on Chicago’s Southwest Side. He says he loved to draw as a kid, and he hopes to generate change as an artist, writer, and occasional poet while he is incarcerated.