What does one do when time doesn't stop?
When the very wheels of fate turn—yet never move.

How does one see when there's no light to be seen?
When the cold embrace of the tomb
Isn't felt in the embrace of death?

A living death.
One day at a time.
Until—

First steps in a new world,
Sights and sounds so new,
And yet, still known.
Everything filled with sensory delight.

That feeling we feel—
And yet cannot see.
The opportunity to be
Who you were meant to be.

This sounds like a story of birth,
A newborn’s first breath.
And yet...

Isn’t this a feeling we convicts know one day?
So much like the newborn,
Maybe not newly born,
But still, born anew.

Both deserving of life and love,
Both needing nurturing care.
One frowned upon,
The other cooed to.

Connected by nature,
The new and the lost.

Truly beautiful,
And so worth the cost—
To feel how I feel,
And see through these eyes.

Chad Langgle
Jessup Correctional Institution - Maryland