ESCAPING
BY STRESSLA LYNN JOHNSON
Escaping from this moment of pain and fear.
Emotional stillness, feeling my body …
tensed, restricted, hard to breathe
in more ways than I care to explain — chasing my pain, or running from the truth.
Scared inside the quietness of being awake.
To look at the images reflected in the mirror,
without seeing my face, bars behind me, remind me,
that time does not stand still.
The adaptation of being in an eight-by-five box,
with access to the sewer only an arm’s length away.
Sounds and smells of despair rising up and down,
mingled with tears that have a beginning without an end.
Caught on a mental treadmill,
inflections, reflections, self-deception,
returning isolation.
Escaping from this hour of pain and fear.
Silent inside the stillness of doing time.
Connected to joy and sorrow. | SLJ