True Love Never Dies: A Letter To My Love

“Until the lion writes his own story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

The Soy Autor writing process was developed in collaboration with young people at-risk of, victims of or perpetrators of violence in El Salvador. In 2017, this innovative program launched at Cook County Jail with young men awaiting trial for violent offenses. Through the process of drafting, revising, illustrating and publishing memoirs, the Authors’ Circle develops reflection, critical thinking, camaraderie, conflict resolution and positive self-projection.

In collaboration with:

Cook County Sheriff’s Office

True Love Never Dies: A Letter to my Love Lenae Patterson

One day He looked down below.

Possibly admiring his handiwork, Possibly coming up with a new creaaon, Only He could know.

But when he saw the man moving to and fro, He nooced the man was incomplete, and he said, “It is not good for man to be alone.�

I remember feeling uneasy.

A deep feeling within my soul that something was wrong.

I couldn't quite pinpoint it at that very moment, And I think that's what scared me the most, Not knowing what was going on.

It was as if the universe was shiiing, Like my center of gravity was o, The cause of this, I had no clue.

I am from the street corners, the trenches.

From digital scales and double-lock baggies.

I am from the vacant lots where homes (not houses) used to be,

surrounded by death and jail cells,

a hustler’s most profitable crops.

I am from church on Sunday and grinding hard by any means necessary.

I’m from Renae Blackwell and Minerva and Monroe Patterson.

I’m from urban wisdom and foolish pride.

From “be a man of understanding”

and “we respect all, and if you disrespect it, we gon’ die and kill ‘bout it.”

I’m from the balance of good and evil.

Happiness and misery.

From losing people I deeply care about to gaining a few I would do without.

I am from self-medicating. Pills, lean, weed, it honestly makes no difference.

From being the black sheep and scum of the earth, to being top dawg because my money getting long.

I am that I am.