Release funds for political prisoner Eric King

“When life gets heavy

I lay on my bunk

Put my sheet over my head

Pretend to be a turtle in my shell

Retreat to my safe space

Eat my lettuce and carrots

Pretend I’m out in a garden

Escape the noises and pollution

Build my fantasy reality

Safe + sound

Blocking out the hate and noise

Living in my shell

Until it is safe to come out”

(Eric wrote this poem while preparing to go to trial)

Eric is a father, a poet, activist and amazing friend. He had the courage to go to trial against the government after being taken into a closet at FCI Florence and attacked by a guard and subsequently tortured. He spent 4 years in segregation facing massive oppression while fighting his case. Physically attacked, complete separation from his family, friends and community. After his acquittal the Bureau of Prisons they sent him further from his family while they orchestrated a designation to the federal supermax in Florence Colorado. He will spend the rest of his time in complete solitude while he fights his ongoing civil case against the Bureau of prisons. These years have been brutal for him and his family and he's ready to come home.

Best case scenario in summer of 2023 Eric steps out from 5 years of solitary confinement into a very different world from his arrest in 2014. He will spend 6 months and a halfway house and 3 years of supervised release.

We are raising funds so Eric can start his life again so he can come home and be a father, a husband, a friend. So he can exist somewhere without bars. So he can write. FINALLY see a doctor! Maybe figure out how airpods work

Eric is finally coming home! It’s rough coming home with a federal felony. It’s been a lot of years approaching this day worrying about what release is going to be like. About halfway house. What it’s going to be like working. Figuring out housing. There are so many things to think about after coming home from such a long time. We want to take one of those things off his mind and ease the burden of capitalism so he can finally heal those wounds

“On the other side of the fence it grows

Out of the reach of my hand & nose

Free to be as lovely as it intends

Free to be with its flower friends

Not to be killed inside this cage

Such enchantments would be a waste

Never seen such a blue, defying hate

Just by existing

Fed by the sun it feeds my being

Sometimes being happy feels like treason

Your petals offer one more reason

To not break down or fold so easy

Life would be such a cake

The day I awake

On the same side as my friends

We’ll both rise up in defiance

On that day”