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Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash

Does your exiled heart yearn for home?

Do the lonely nights make you ache for a love to hold?

Have you been to the temples of bitter truth and unheard pleas

where violence is worshiped, hatred and ignorance breed?

Have you walked chained down corridors filled with humanity’s screams;

have you tried to smile but your soul only bleeds;

have you been lost in the night; was it you I heard weep?

What would you do to turn back the years,

to realize your dreams, to face all your fears?

Would you give it all now for just one last chance

to turn a new leaf, to learn a new dance?

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.

Ezra Williams is a writer incarcerated in California.