Perhaps the most valuable gift
I’ve ever received
Saved my life
It was the gift of hope
Freshly arrested
First time in jail
Facing life no parole
And other inmates saying things
Like: “You’ll die in here”
I was straight up suicidal
Until the forensic psych told me
“You’ll just do a few years”
In a mental health facility
It was a white lie to stop me
Ending it there and then
The idea of pleading innocent
By way of insanity
Had never occurred to me
And where I saw nothing but misery
For the rest of my days
Now I had just a little hope
Looking back I see
That he was trying to save me from myself
But that notion of
A manageable sentence
Kept me from suicide
In the end I got
What the lawyers called ‘Second Prize’
No psych ward
But manslaughter with a six
By then I had already done two
So it was a blessed four years to go
That, I could deal with
The psych had a break down
Couldn’t appear in court
But he had already saved my life
With the gift of hope
