[ There’s more than a little irony in Peter Carroll’s poem
about a woman who has been imprisoned for over 20 years being “free
to start over.” ]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

CLEMENCY  
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Peter Neil Carroll
June 19, 2023
Cultural Daily
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_ There’s more than a little irony in Peter Carroll’s poem about
a woman who has been imprisoned for over 20 years being “free to
start over.” _

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Clemency

By Peter Neil Carroll

I never met her, before or after. She

was up for parole, she needed a letter

for clemency. I had good letterhead.

Back in the 70s, a 20-year-old woman gets

40 years-to-life for believing a liar: lending

$400 to her boyfriend for a car, but instead

he bought a rifle for a gang of radicals. 

She hasn’t seen or heard from him since.

She has already served 22 years good time. 

She stands near the gate, watches the yellow prison

bus approach. The telegram yesterday brought

her a reprieve. Did my letter matter? Unlikely.

She waits with the wind, buttons the blue denim

jacket, wondering where she will live. On parole,

she can’t meet old associates (as if she would).

Her parents have passed, she’s lost track of a sister.

She’s a new woman, no longer interested in men

(she thinks). This is America; she is free to start over.

Peter Neil Carroll has two new collections of poetry: _This Land,
These People: The 50 States_ (2022), which won the Prize Americana
from the Institute for the Study of Popular Culture; and _Talking to
Strangers: poetry of everyday life _(Turning Point, 2022).  He lives
in northern California with the photographer/author Jeannette Ferrary.


* Poetry
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* women prisoners
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