Verdict

This is the second time you’ve asked me to die,

so why are you the one who looks condemned?

The first time it took six or seven years

To wake up in that stale room to an unfamiliar ceiling

and a half smoked Black and Mild, except that I

knew I was dead, or worse yet: had never been.

I had been pushed back into the womb,

back to the time of Adam,

and grown again from the seeds of life.

I am the only person to see man fall a second time

and yet there is no hesitation

in the words that will end my life again.