Pull me out from depths of the prison of panic and fear I inhabit

One small phrase willing words straining against bars of my ribcage to slip through
And be released

Passion the officer responsible for overturning the former guilty verdict
In favor of a tentative plea bargain

To let solitary confinement end

Along with the silence that had been my cell since the very first day
Of my self-inflicted sentence

Now I sense a shift
As the emotion locked tight finally is allowed the sweet taste of freedom

As the door to jail my heart was enclosed in opens with a click
The words I have been holding hostage are trapped no more

Escaping my lips with surprise

My feelings in chains no more

"I love you too"