The bright light of the Sun
hurt his sunken eyes
even as his pupils fought
to adjust to such ordinariness
which was naked exposure
He felt nothing
no sense of elation
no sense of release
in fact a sense of dread
for he knew not where to begin.
Twenty-two years gone.
Committed for felony
he failed to commit
but criminal justice said it was
and so it has been.
Solitude became his companion
for that length of time
in a cell of total isolation
a short hard crib for a bed
four closing walls as his closest friends.
He clutches his head
for he knows nowhere to go.
He prefers to return
to the silence of his cell
where he communed in himself.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Solitude, The Daily Post Prompt
Image credit: Pixabay
a cooking pot and twisted tales 
Oh, this is so sad, Jacqui, but very powerful 🙂
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Thank you Judy. I am sure that prison does a number to inmates especially those in isolation.
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Yes, i agree. They just become so institutionalised.
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Powerful words to go with that pretty amazing image. Wow.
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Thank you Van. He’s a broken man
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Sad sad poem. First to be locked away for a crime you didn’t commit and then to be put in confinement alone, no outside, no sunlight ever for twenty-years. And then being let out, of course you’re afraid, you’re used to what you know, what you’ve been allowed. So the man goes back into the cell. Humanity is very cruel sometimes, these are results of cruelty. Well written Jacqueline.
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You are so right Mandi. Sometimes, humanity is simply cruel.
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Indeed, there are times when we get accustomed to bad times that we find it hard to gladly accept freedom
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That is one reason that the U. S. Constitution separates the judicial and executive powers, and does not give the executive any power to punish, but only carry out punishments determined by a judge and legislature- which is bad enough! Now if we can just get these meat head cops and jailers to read the constitution… Say, I wonder what the penalty is for usurping powers the constitution does not give you, if you are a jailer or a cop?
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Maybe put them in jail too for a taste of it.
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