Boredom

The Walls.

The Light.

No Window or Vent.

A Slot in the door that lets air in.

I might be alive, but I might as well be a rotting corpse.

There's warmth in here, from the light, but also cold, from the bare concrete floor.

I know I'm supposed to be here, but do they need to keep me here that long.

I listen for sounds,

I hear the blowing wind, some chatter from the outside, footsteps walking by and on occasion, a tray being slid in, from under the door. My meal.

But in here, All I hear is..................................................................

SILENCE.

I have nothing to do, nothing to talk to, well I have myself, but that doesn't really help that much seeing where I am.

I sit down on my mattress thinking that maybe, just maybe I could see someone.........

no human interaction is really getting to me. Just looking at a face would suffice.

The light stays on, if it's night or day, I don't know.

The only way to tell the time in here is by the hustle of lunch time, when everyone goes to eat and I get my meal.

It's

lonely

I wait as I always do, for someone to come with food then leave with my dishes then come again a few hours later then come again, then the same thing the next day and the day after that and it's been like that for months.

Feels like centuries.

The days move like years.

The hours drag along like weeks.

Each second makes my head fill with thoughts I never thought I had.

The boredom is killing me from the inside, I might be alive, but the time I want to spend moving

I might as well be a corpse. Waiting. Hoping for someone to come and claim my soul, because it's stuck in purgatory, my purgatory of solitude, where no one can come to me and I can't go to anyone.

All I do is wait.

Wait for them to let me out, so I can go back to my bed.

The next day,

I hear the knock for lunch,

but they don't give it to me under the door,

I wait for my meal, but that's not what happens,

the door moves, the sound of the lock sliding open, the loud clank when it reaches the end of it's journey.

My heart gets flooded with happiness and my body gains life, again.

I try to look at my salvation but the beauty of the light is just too much for my eyes to handle and I keep squinting. Even with my hands over my eyes.

A shadowy figure stands at the door, but it's no mystery who it is, he always comes here personally to see what becomes of the people in solitude.

To see if we're still here

or if we can't come back

because in here, you either lose your way or you stay on it

As my eyes adjust I see him better, then he starts talking

"I hope you had a nice time in here, these walls seem like a nice place to call home, huh."

Even though it was his voice, after all this time, it was nice to hear someone.

I could've just sat there, listening to him, to hear another voice, it felt unreal,

but I had to reply, and I couldn't let him think I was going soft

"If you really believe that, then why don't you spend 6 months in here."

"I'm just sayin', for someone who says he loves to talk, you sure have gotten some quiet time over the years."

"What can I say........... things happen."

"They, sure do. Well, your time's up, just gonna sit there?"

I hesitate to agree with him, showing off his power all the time, but another moment spent in here is another moment spent outside of reality,

another moment with boredom.

I stand up and get to the door, he steps out of the way and I walk out into hallway, two guards standing on either side of the door, waiting for me. The fluorescent lights hum, louder than I remember them to. I look in front of me and I see the hallway back to my room.

I start walking

the guards follow me and when I reach my room, he's sitting on his bed reading a book.

He looks over and sees me, puts his book down and stands up with a smile. The guard opens up the door, I walk in and the first thing I do is give him a hug.

"Whoa! didn't know you missed me so much."

"I didn't miss you, you just had something on your back, I was just brushing it off."

We both smile at each other, he shakes his head and hugs me back.

"It's good to have you back, ma' man."

"It's good to be back, homie."

After so long of being confined to one spot, I went from one cage to another. But instead of having walls and emptiness surround me, I now have bars that I can see through and a roommate that makes bad jokes.

Couldn't ask for anything more.