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A dark image of a broken mirror with a spot of blue light in the middle
Photo by Dustin Humes on Unsplash

Where hurt speaks to your sorrows
And today’s miseries cry from tomorrow

Surrounded by images nightmares regret
Living in yesterdays that are hard to forget

Running from memories of childhood abuse
Chased me into streets with a criminal excuse

That ghetto lifestyle was another prison
It hypnotized my thinking with an illusional vision

It’s hard to imagine or see things clearer
When you try to see hope in a broken mirror

From kneeling wishes and prayers to the stars
With mental scars that cling to steel bars

Confused dreams and thoughts that scream
Into wishes that gleam, you know what I mean?

Where tears of tomorrow cry from today
Where only the imagination can hear what I say

As I’m psychologically running from within
I’m constantly running back and forth into the pen

Once again captured by the web of crime
Politically designed to confine me in time

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.

Michael Leak’s poetry is “the medication of my depression; it’s a window that my imagination peeks through.” He is incarcerated in Michigan.