
After years of standing for morning counts, my body is trained to wake up about 5:35am. Laid back on my steel bottom bunk with my head faced right, I scouted the ten bunks ahead of my end bunk. Minus different rhythms of snoring, most of the guys were asleep like newborn babies. I shifted my head center and rested my chin on my chest to watch a 13″ TV. Processing my country’s involvement in the Israel-Iran war, I closed my eyes and began thanking God for another day.
Months after my Aunt Sylvia died in 2023, my brother, JeMario, was fatally shot. I experienced drug addiction for the first time at 35. Emotionally scarred by my painful loses, I began numbing my pain with buprenorphine (suboxone). I fell into a deep darkness of horror, and I was lost with a 1,000 lb anchor chained to my hands and feet.