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Photo by  Doug Kelley  on  Unsplash
Photo by Doug Kelley on Unsplash

My wings are broken.
Discarded.
I wonder the world
in search of new ones,
wings that don’t come with strings attached,
wings of my own,
a certain length.
a certain color.

I wish to be free. I choose to be free.
I wish to be level headed,
to reach the skies, not too high,
I don’t want to be blinded by the sun,
and not too low,
I don’t want to be absorbed by the ground below.

Just in between.
The in between place of happiness and pain.

I can’t wait
to find these new wings of mine.

Disclaimer: The views in this article are those of the author. Prison Journalism Project has verified the writer’s identity and basic facts such as the names of institutions mentioned.

Jesse Manzo is a Mexican American writer incarcerated in California.