"Where Would I Be?"

By Rodriguez A. Peake
Muskegon Correctional Facility

Where would I be if I wasn't here? Would I be there? Nowhere, like a chair sitting in an empty room?

Or ...

If I wasn't there, would I still be nowhere? Like a moon stuck in the day becuase of a night left too soon?

Where would I be?

Would I be where I thought I could've been? If I would've done what I should've done way back then, way back when, when now was then, and then was all I had - only seconds to make decisions I didn't know would affect my life to the end?

What about my friends whose lives ended? Where would I be if I would've walked down that same street? Like them, would I be free, suspended in a realm or eternal peace and rest where life ended because of wise decisions intended, but never made?

Where would I be?

If I hadn't given the streets and the world so much of me, would I be somewhere deeply rooted, like a tree, standing tall, facing the wind, the rain and only shedding a leaf instead of sitting behind these brick walls for countless days at a time, facing the possibility of years in a penitentiary?

Where would I be?

If I would have taken more time to get to know me, to know you, and to know God more passionately

I wonder ...

Where would I be?