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I See a Home
Tony Vick

I see a home for me
Whittled amongst the weathered wood
A crevice to rest my worn body
A place of solace to smell the sweet scents of freedom
A place for me to exist
One that you envisioned long before I did
There it is—just beyond the horizon
A cozy warmth from the mud-brick fireplace
The one you made, brick by brick, drying in the sun
A pot of stew smelling of pearled onions and rosemary
The one you made, cutting each piece of beef precisely even
A chair by the window draped with a beautiful quilt
The one you made, stitch by stitch, just for me
A door that swings both ways, no locks
The one you hung for me—never to be confined again

—
Tony Vick, sixty years old, has served twenty-five years on a Life With Parole sentence in Tennessee. In 2018, his book of essays and poems, Secrets from a Prison Cell (A Convict’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars), was published by Cascade Books. His works have appeared in multiple books and publications, most recently Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & the Arts, and a poetry anthology, A 21st Century Plague: Poetry from a Pandemic, edited by Elayne Clift.

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How Did You Sleep? by Kim Stafford
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