Surviving this cage of concrete and steel
takes epic proportions of tenacity and will.
The key is remaining strong in both body and soul,
when the beatings and anguish start taking their toll.
Most everyone in here wants all that I've got—
some things are material, others are not.
They want to break me, both convicts and guards.
They'd see my resolve destroyed and lying in shards.
Anarchy reigns here, disparity abounds,
evil is lurking, making its rounds.
I strive to find peace here, some tranquility,
for years it remained beyond the horizon and my ability.
With years long gone and still more to go,
the wear from the fight I call life is beginning to show.
I've made poor decisions—not once but time and again—
they've cost me my past, my family, a friend.
Surely the day will come for me to be released
and thrown from this hell into the belly of the beast.
See, it's always been equal—both sides of the fence.
Answers to life's secrets are rare and its problems immense.
Not all things have solutions easy to explain,
wisdom and humility are rather hard to attain.

I've bucked life's tide with the decisions I've made,
always running from demons I could have beaten had I stayed.
These scars on my body and soul will remain—
deserved or not, I'll forever bear their pain.
Now I take life's punches square on the chin,
hoping they can change what they couldn't back then.
It's a wonder how I ever chose this path—
the one crossed by the roads hate, fear, and wrath.
I've done few things of which I am proud;
the echoes of my sins ring violently loud.
My demons still find me here and there,
their promises so sweet, their rewards despair.
Freeing myself is now the task at hand,
but the answers slip by like hourglass sand.
I pray that God's light will show me the key
to not being this person I don't want to be.
I'm scared to death He'll give up and give in with a sigh,
knowing I couldn't be now what I wasn't in life.
I can't run from this cage of concrete and steel;
the only solution is let come what will.
These are lines from my life and the way sometimes I still feel—
you may think it's fiction, but God and I know it is real.

~ Written by Christopher C. Lightfoot aka ‘Foot'

AI Art by UF Team Member