Notes from Exile: Granddaughter's Visit
Log/Verse: daily reflections from prison, written every morning at my bunk. Part poem, part log book.
In this week’s Justice Notes essay, Shame, I wrote about a visit from my grandchildren during my time in prison. Not long after that visit, I wrote the following poem. The poem later appeared in my Moonstone Press poetry collection.
ALICE
Do you know I
Love you?
I'd say to my
Granddaughter.
A knowing shy smile
on that beautiful
face.
"Of course I do"
she'd say.
Is there anything purer
then the innocence
of a seven year
old.
And how am I to come
to terms with
that.
The reckoning of my
scandal
And the perfection
of that
Smile.
This poem was written shortly after that visit and later appeared in my Moonstone Press poetry collection, A DIFFERENT KIND OF HELL. If you’re interested in reading more of the poems written during and after my time in prison, the collection can be found here: Moonstone Publishing.
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