A social media memory from 6 years ago; 
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
in the foothills of Tennessee. 
We walked through the cells, 
and then out the back to the exercise yard,
where they now have concerts and events. 
At the back, the stone fence built by convict labor
that James Earl Ray went over
when he escaped for three days in 1977
then mountains as far as the eye can see. 

I could look on those mountains happily
every day for the rest of my life. 
I wonder if that view 
gave inmates hope, or only more despair.