Redemption is Real

I once inhaled freedom like a breath of fresh air

Carelessly taking for granted that it would always be there

Wasting time at the intersection of Reckless and Stupidity streets

Where poor decisions and thoughtless acts often meet

The era that I’m from, people in the streets spoke two languages, broken English and firearm

Spewing out metal words like copper jacks didn’t inflict deadly harm

Diagnosed by street shrinks with a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality

To survive in my madness, I adopted I don’t-give-a-fuck ideology

My parents being proud of me imagine that I kept my distance so they couldn’t bear witness to my decline

My mind, in retrospect, I was on some dumbshit

Trapped like a fly in the mix

So sick, I didn’t think my behavior was all that rough

But then again, why did I find myself in the back of a police car handcuffed?

Charged with taking a life

Suddenly, awakened to reality of forfeiting my own life

What a life

The judge sentenced me to life 23 years old

No longer so bold

Glaring in the judge’s eyes so cold

Speaking of eyes

How do I look my mother in her teary eyes

Silently asking why

Her only son French kissing the world he once knew goodbye

How do I reconcile in my mind of how to do this time

The first prison cell they warehoused me in wasn’t fit for mice or men

A three-stained mattress upon a rusted cot broken toilet and no sink nothing to do but think I now inhale incarceration with each breath I take

Choking on confinement like carbon monoxide

My hands are up, but not in surrender, I can’t breathe A 40-foot prison wall encloses me, I can’t leave

Prison air suffocating me I can’t breathe

But I won’t give up, there’s too much to achieve

The idea that a person can’t be redeemed needs to be discredited

All I have is my life left, for a second chance, I’ll bet it

Time to rebuild this broken soul

Take responsibility for the poison I sowed

Journey on the trail of tears you cause

That terrible sin Human loss

Never again will I be labeled a “public enemy”

Or adopt an unflattering identity

Repentance is offered not because one got caught, or being sentenced to a heap of time

But rather feeling shame and the guilt of the sin one left behind

Rehabilitation, is it possible?

Can a person be renewed?

Yes, as long as you’re sincere, there’s goodness that can be pursued

Redemption is real

Even when you’re confined by concrete and steel I will never stop making amends

What you predict to be my ending, I shall begin “Lock ’em up and throw away the key,” the hardliners love to stick to this stance

But who wouldn’t give themselves a second chance?