Something So Simple As Sheets
My cell was very cool last night, I like it like that. I sleep in cut-off sweat pants;need to be prepared in case I have to spring from my prison bunk. Some sleep naked, or in their underwear, I prefer to be ready for whatever might happen. I always leave my shoes right below my bunk too, ready to step right into them. I also sleep with the chair next to me, might have to grab it for defense against a “charge”. My cell door is un-locked at 5:30 every morning. At the click of the lock… I move. I move the chair. My feet slip into my shoes. I walk over to the cell door… I look left and right up the long tier. No-ones up and out yet, it’s safe. Quickly I do one set of forty push-ups to get my heart pumping. I’m awake. I walk to the ice machine, bucket in hand. I ice down every morning to fully awaken.
This morning, I feel great, happy, and, like I am somewhere else. Last night I had a treat. Last night, I slept with new sheets upon my prison bunk. Last night the air was cool. I slept with my face towards the window. I did not wear a tee-shirt, I wanted to feel the new sheets better. I thought of many things with just a new pair of sheets, the softness, the freshness. I thought of freedom. I thought of when I was free. I thought of someone. I thought of romance. I thought of fine places, with lovely bedrooms. It made me think of many things. It made me remember. Just two simple pieces of cloth. When I was free, I would never think of, enjoy, a simple set of sheets. Oh, I even have a new pillowcase. It’s not often we get new bedding around here. I had to trade for the new stuff. I wash my bedding weekly-I have 6 more days of new fresh feeling sheets to enjoy. My blanket is old, but washed weekly also. It cost .50 cents to wash and .50 cents to dry. I buy my own wash powder, Tide, then mix it with cheaper stuff to save alittle.
I write this after my first nighy with the new sheets. Yup, I’ll get 6 more nights. After the first wash that new fresh feeling will be gone-they will be clean but not new feeling. They are sheets, just sheets, nothing fancy.
Free, if ever I get free; I wish to feel that way about alot of simple things. To enjoy every part of the small things. If I enjoy every part of many small things, it should take the rest of my life. While prison is bad, it teaches. After decades I have learned alot.
May those that read this never have to learn as I. May they never have to rise each dark morning as I, 7 days aweek, 52 weeks a year, for 26 years. Rise like some beast, so you can live. For not to, is.. to not to.