Damien Echols Death Row Letter, Year 16 1/2 - Nick Cave

[00:00.000]Today,the guards made me bleed again
[00:05.750]They chained my feet so tight
[00:11.520]I could barely move
[00:15.630]I bleed through my socks,
[00:20.870]last month it was my left ankle,
[00:26.280]today it was the right
[00:29.560]When I wash,
[00:34.430]the soap burns like fire,
[00:38.910]but I have to keep my ankles clean
[00:44.390]because I don't have any alcohol,
[00:46.290]or peroxide,
[00:48.750]nothing to kill a bacteria or infections,
[00:55.320]and this place is filthy
[01:00.280]I can't remember what it's like
[01:05.800]to walk as a human being anymore.
[01:13.840]My cell is so small
[01:17.560]that I can only take two steps.
[01:22.290]any time when I'm brought out,
[01:27.120]I walk briefly or infrequently.
[01:30.890]I have chains on my hands and feet
[01:34.850]as well as guards hanging on me
[01:41.180]And well over sixteen years since I have actually walked anywhere
[01:47.380]sometimes I still can't wrap my mind around now
[01:56.490]I'm working on my seventeenth year now.
[02:00.910]There were times when I thought,
[02:04.430]\"surely, someone's gonna put a stop to this.
[02:11.190]Surely someone is gonna do something\"
[02:17.600]But they never do
[02:23.000]Time just rolls on
[02:26.900]It's insanity
[02:31.020]I'm truly amazed of what they've gonna allow to get away with
[02:37.870]and for how long
[02:43.740]Oh well,
[02:48.040]there's no good to dwell on it
[02:51.650]either I waste my energy by focusing on things I cannot change
[02:57.980]or I can serve my energy
[03:00.440]and to bled to small things I can change.
[03:06.430]That's what the I Ching calls --
[03:10.770]the taming power of the small.