GAIL #3

Some of them love the life inside.

They’ll say they hate it. But they like it.

Some of them will commit a crime the day they get out.

So they can come back in.

They are comfortable here.

They know where they stand.

They know who they are.

They have a place.

On the outside, they’re the people beggin’ for change.

Gimme a loonie gimme a toonie—

Gimme five bucks for food. Sellin’ their bodies . . . for drugs.

I can recognize them instantly, even if I don’t know them. It’s something in the face, in the body.

The way they hold themselves.

This place stains them.

Forever. All of them.

It stains some of US too . . .

And the thing of it is . . . it’s an unwipeoffable stain . . .