To the editor:

I am an inmate of the Brown County jail. I have also been known as a musician, alcoholic, addict, troublemaker and failure. I am currently in recovery. I want to give thanks to all the people in this community who dedicate their time to make recovery possible for someone like me.

I wrote the following poem while reflecting on my life and would like to dedicate it to the addicts, to my lost friends, loves, and most of all, those souls who care enough to take the time to bring recovery to us, so we don’t have to keep living with regrets.

Life of Regrets

Life full of regrets

My future unknown

In this cell I await

So cold and alone

My past it now haunts me

Each and every day

With all these regrets

Can I choose the right way

I’ve never been one

To walk a straight line

So sure in my youth

Everything would be fine

The guilt and regrets

Now laid on so thick

They’re weighing me down

Like eight tons of brick

What once was so murky

Now perfectly clear

For it isn’t my future

But myself I should fear

With so many regrets

Bad outcomes I’ve earned

Consequences and heartaches

You’d like I’d have learned

The guilt and regrets

Of my foolhearted way

Brings shame down upon me

And the price I now pay

The guilt and regrets

Have taken their toll

They’ve broken my spirit

And blackened my soul

But once I have paid

The dues for my crime

I’ll learn from my past

I’ll walk the straight line

So I pray now to God

Please grant this request

Dear Lord guide me now

Through this life of regrets

Clayton W. Rushton, Brown County jail