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