These poems were inspired by the film “The Shawshank Redemption”

Andy to his unnamed wife

Restrained by high brick walls,
barbed wire and the guard’s baton.
It is only now that I am filled with purpose;
purpose makes a free man.
Despair has strengthened the bars that confined me.
I can’t help but wonder, was the bullet
that left your blood lining the room,
a blessing that set me free?
Does that make me guilty?
Irony. The place that confines me
gives me more comfort than I ever felt in your arms.
Now that I am surrounded by shadows
I finally see the light.
My lover’s lover.
What did he have that I did not?
I gave you my heart; was that not enough?
It was perfect at the start.
To the end of the world, I loved you
A lie.
Addiction, the need, you drove me savage, wasting away.
Never did I think I would come crashing down.
We were flying so high.
Never would I think I would have kept falling.
Love; a drug, you were mine.

I wish it was anger that I had felt.
Thunder from the storm in my head,
I couldn’t hear my thoughts.
An earthquake in my heart, I shook.
I shook like an addict without his daily fix.
Look, what you did to me.
Bourbon burned away my pain but nothing would hide my tears.
The fear of losing you;
the reason I ended up in this heartless cavern.
Scared to be lonely.

You had me trapped in a prison of addiction.
Affliction, did I make you suffer?
Your pain, a quiet voice in a roaring blizzard.
Attention; is that what you wanted? I’m sorry.
Trapped in an illusion that everything was okay.
It wasn’t. I’m sorry.
My eyes still blurred. What did I do wrong?

Free of your prison, Purpose was my key.
No longer poisoned by your sins.
Sat in a living hell, innocent demons, my friends.
You must be an angel
Still, unanswered questions are salt in my wounds.

The wife’s reply

All I wanted to do was dance.
Trapped in each other’s prisons
But, I broke free
It tore my world in two doing this to you.
The deception the lies, it hurt but, I was drowning,
Suffocating in your wake.
Too focused on your ambition,
you forgot about me.

He, a flame, that would never burn out.
You, a wilting flower; blackened by time.
I needed warmth in this cold world.
You were frozen.

Why did you kill me?
Unnurtured, I died.
Love starved.
You turned me into a sinner.
A fake smile.
Why couldn’t you look underneath?
You didn’t pull the trigger,
but, you aimed the gun.