Damien Echols Death Row Letter, Year 16 1/2

Today,the guards made me bleed again

They chained my feet so tight

I could barely move

I bleed through my socks,

last month it was my left ankle,

today it was the right

When I wash,

the soap burns like fire,

but I have to keep my ankles clean

because I don't have any alcohol,

or peroxide,

nothing to kill a bacteria or infections,

and this place is filthy

I can't remember what it's like

to walk as a human being anymore.

My cell is so small

that I can only take two steps.

any time when I'm brought out,

I walk briefly or infrequently.

I have chains on my hands and feet

as well as guards hanging on me

And well over sixteen years since I have actually walked anywhere

sometimes I still can't wrap my mind around now

I'm working on my seventeenth year now.

There were times when I thought,

"surely, someone's gonna put a stop to this.

Surely someone is gonna do something"

But they never do

Time just rolls on

It's insanity

I'm truly amazed of what they've gonna allow to get away with

and for how long

Oh well,

there's no good to dwell on it

either I waste my energy by focusing on things I cannot change

or I can serve my energy

and to bled to small things I can change.

That's what the I Ching calls --

the taming power of the small.