Monday, January 08, 2007

People You Meet in a Convenience Store on a Cold January Sunday Morning
By Don Iannone

Freeman, he calls himself.
I asked, and he told me
his amazing story of rebirth and freedom.
His real name: John Sylvester, and
a free man now, after forty-seven long years.
All this I learned while standing in line
at the local convenience store
buying a morning newspaper
on a cold January Sunday morning.
Yes, this was Freeman's first free Sunday,
after spending seventy-five percent of his life
in an Ohio penitentiary.
No, I didn't ask him what he had done.
Why steal away a man's first free Sunday morning
in forty-seven years?

8 comments:

starry said...

That was so nice.True.Why spoil a persons first day as a free man.After all those years.

Borut said...

Feline Tornado at 1.56 AM, Dancing with the Cobras Inside Us. The jails of our inner and outer worlds? No wonder it takes some of us 47, or even more, years just to get out!?:) Fascinating!

trinitystar said...

Well done Don!

Interesting isnt it? How we meet people. Everyone a story to tell.
:o)

And depending how we view our own life ... we also do time in our own illusionary prisons ... lets release ourselved to peace and love ... compassion ... lets be free.

Anonymous said...

Nice!

Kai said...

i like this piece...
hope u see him again
:-]

polona said...

what a meaningful encounter!
well done, don!

Anonymous said...

I love those chance meetings!

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Thanks all. Makes us more aware of the extraordinary within the ordinary in our everyday lives.

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