going to prison

on tuesday nights i go to prison
before you start jumping to conclusions, let me explain
when i was a student at Drake i took a community writing class in which the class spent a semester going to a nearby women's prison and writing with the inmates. it was an experience that led me to writing a 20+ page capstone paper and doing further research on the topics of both community writing and the purpose of prison in general.
now, two years later i find myself sitting in the same prison, writing with a new group of women. i am compelled by the words they share with us, the stories they reveal, and the truths i may never know. in that classroom it doesn't matter that they are prisoners and i am free. that i have air conditioning and they don't, that i can come and go as i please and their every move is monitored. we are united by our writing and for an hour and a half each week the words that spill from our pens and fill the yellow legal pads in front of us are all that matter.