I Was the Grass Beneath Your Feet
still made my chest tighten painfully.
Suddenly, my phone rang. It was a message from Iris Marino, a professor from the Romeronian Academy of Letters.
"May God bless you, my child. Your poetry shines, and hiding yourself won't keep it from being seen," Iris wrote. "You won the award, didn't you? I told you this before. You were born to be a poet!"
I was momentarily speechless. I recalled how, back in prison, reading and writing were the only things that kept me going—especially poetry.