Creative

Memories arise, an echo's gentle sway, circling 'round me, crays of yesterday. Recalling her smile, so beautiful and bright, a beacon of joy in the softest light.

My name is Zoe. I am 37 years old and I was in prison for 6 years. I am currently on parole and have been out of prison for a year and a half. Since then I have been a core member of the Formerly Incarcerated Girls Justice Advocates Melbourne (FIGJAM) Collective.

All men love their freedom, and the freedom they do take. Freedom can be lost, by making many mistakes. Don't take freedom for granted, as they may take it away. Prisons were invented, just to make a young man pay.

When the light returns and the long night fades, and dawn slips soft through shadowed shades, you feel the hush before the day – a whisper of grace that finds its way.

They expect us to play ball, but always move the goalposts. They expect us to hold boundaries, the same they overstep. They want us to abide, but break their own rules.

Christmas day without my family, was such a terrible burden to bare, no Christmas tree, decorations, no presents, no laughter, no joy, no Christmas fare.

Every feeling they felt, the other feels too, trust is a must and communication too. Together as one, soulmates we are destined, forever to each other we are.

After all his team had been through to get here, physically and mentally, the farm boys were disrespecting them big time. “Only one way to shut their gobs,” he thought with venom.

The poem was written in the early weeks of being on remand, expressing my raw emotions while coming to terms with it all.

Here I sit inside my cell, thinking to myself, is this Hell? Cold and dark, with a terrible smell. I think it is, only time will tell.