Miss Congeniality

Sundays I travel
it’s visiting day
time to see
my fair little friend
who lives in
a place of
maximum security
no chance
of parole.

Before she
arrives
I make stories up
in my head
of inmates here
on why and what
brought them
to a concrete
barbed wire home.

Young lovers
her boyfriend
her husband
who is he?
Sorry
no touching here.
Steal
your hugs and kisses
outside where
cameras
don’t reach.

When my
sweet friend
walks in
so happy and true
I wonder if others
make up stories
about us, too?

Passing guards
and inmates
all greet their hellos
to an incarcerated
Miss Congeniality
as she smiles and
holds court.

We laugh hard
we talk fast
book reviews
gossip
and films.
She loves
The New York Times
and the
Golden State Warriors.
A few fleeting hours
of conversation
and happy.

And when it’s time
to say goodbye
there is yet a time
while driving home
that I don’t think
and revel
in the fact
that I am free.

We surely do
make our own choices.
She made hers
and I’m sad
I made mine
and I’m glad.
The rule of law
does demand
accountability.

We aren’t so very different
my kind friend
and me
and I do love her so.
But the prison
wall chasm
runs deep and wide.
I’ve made a promise
oh, this one I’ll keep.
Here is one place
where I’ll never sleep.

Good bye for now
Miss Congeniality
be ever so good
and I’ll
see you
next week, yes
back in your hood.

Photo Credit: lenifuzhead Flickr via Compfight cc

Dori Owen

Dori Owen blogs on ArizonaGirlDiary.tumblr.com, is a columnist on FeminineCollective.com, a contributor/editor for The Lithium Chronicles, created the Facebook page Diary of an Arizona Girl, is an author on AskABipolar, was featured in the books FeminineCollective RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I and StigmaFighters Vol II, and is a zealous tweeter as @doriowen. She's a former LA wild child who settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. Dori spent her adult years in Southern California, with a brief stay in Reno, and has now returned to where she ran away from in Arizona. She is a shown artist, writer, and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture she finds from thrift stores. She lives with her beloved rescued terrier, Olivia Twist, and the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son in Portland, Oregon who very much resents being introduced after her pets. But she she does love him the most.

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Dori Owen is a storyteller, writing from small town Arizona, after living a few decades in California as an LA Wild Child, with a brief stop in Reno. She settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. She is a shown artist and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture and decor she finds from thrift stores. She lives with the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essays and poems have been published in RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I, StigmaFighters Vol 2, and Love Notes From Humanity. Her blogs have been featured on The Lithium Chronicles, Open Thought Vortex, Sudden Denouement, and The Mighty.

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