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Photo by David Clode via Unsplash

shutters open
shutters close
walls are moist
rooms are filled —
lost behind
windswept prison walls
shut-ins sit forever
shutting out
sunbathed days —
until today becomes
an endless gray
infertile field
forever
enshrouding
tomorrow’s
tomorrow never know.

eyelids open
eyelids close
walls are wet
rooms unkempt —
lost behind
windswept minds
walls erected
doing times
tango into
obscene oblivion.

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.

Cat Covelli is a writer and artist incarcerated in Illinois.