Even the long-incarcerated need
adequate vision care, so don’t

bat an eye when a stern sort
in uniform escorts an elderly

gentleman in orange to his shoes,
wrists and ankles shackled,

chains tinkling across the carpet
and its office quiet to a room

unseen to the sitters who wait
in phones, magazines, and leisure

only their appointments enforce
but must wonder if the old con

has shuffled off to some designated
coil where he cannot strike the free,

yet break out into the wide-angled
world with sight now corrected

and clearly focused on the goals most pursue