Time
By E.C.
Time is truly not my friend.
Daily it seems to taunt me,
Telling me it will never end.
Time is holding a grudge against me
keeping me away from you.
Multiplying my dark days
which sometimes makes me blue.
This battle that time is now waging against me,
It is really doing all it can
to prevent me from being free.
Sometimes I lay here wondering
if time is just trying to keep you for itself.
Because it knows deep in my heart that I need no woman else.
Now it seems like time and I,
is in a competition.
To see who at the end wins your love and devotion.
But not even father time is gonna keep me away from you.
Some day it will relent and set me free
for us to start anew.
For me to gaze daily in your beautiful face,
as I try to make up the best I can all the time that I waste.
When the days of my imaginings truly come to an end,
as I wrap you in my arms
my lovely beautiful friend.
1 Comments
Leave a Comment
The poets featured here are currently incarcerated, and many of them are in federal prisons far from home. Your feedback is a valuable source of motivation and connection to the outside community. Post your comments, feedback, and encouragement in the space below the poem. Messages will be passed on directly to the author. Comments may not appear immediately on the site, as our team processes them to mail to the poets.
To E.C,
Hello, my name is Kaili. I am 19 years old and currently living in St. Paul Minnesota. I came across your poem on Free Minds. Your poem stood out to me due to the intensity of emotion within your writing. The concept of time stirred me because I can only imagine the feeling of longing during a long sentence. Since I’ve been living apart from my family, I dont see them nearly as much as I used to, which leads me to imagine the loss I would feel while incarcerated. I had a friend who was put into prison for a couple years ago and described it to me as mentally deteriorating, and how fulfilling it was to listen to music once he was out. While reading your poem, the lines “keeping me away from you” and “multiplying my dark days” touched me. Your writing illustrated the feeling of missing those you love, and being locked away, unable to enjoy the blessings of everyday life. Your writing portrayed great darkness and loneliness, which is not only powerful, but connects to all readers who come across your poem making your message even stronger. The line “Sometimes I lay here wondering if time is trying to keep you for itself” displayed an amazing use of imagery. Your words painted a picture of sorrow and contemplation as time ticks by. I imagine at times you have felt hopeless, knowing you had no control of what was occurring outside bars to those you love. I relate to this because someone very important to me in my life is undocumented. Sometimes I fear for what is potentially at stake for them and how that will affect me. It would cause me pain I would never get over, while my mind would continue to think of them and what they were doing forever. Your poem reminded me to have gratitude towards the ones you love and value every moment with them, bad or good, because you never know when that time could be over. Beautiful things can be taken away in the snap of a finger, which is why your poem was so resonant with me. I wish to know more about the friend you are writing to and what you spend your time doing in prison. I liked how you mentioned making the best of all your time. It is important to keep those thoughts in mind and occupy yourself with things that make your time more enjoyable in a place of extreme isolation. I hope you understand that your words reached me and I’m very grateful for them and for your ability to capture both sorrows and yearnings. Through these human emotions, we are connected. I hope you’d listen to music and write more poems for yourself as well as for others, including your loved ones and even those you don’t know.
Take care,
Kaili