5:00 pm—somewhere. Defendant’s hands. strangled blue. blue— cornflowers pressed— thumb, forefinger—splintered. it’s always smelling cold on the train. wet denim smears. headlights drag themselves open. trees blur breathless out the window. & everything made of cornflower; will breathe one day.

“Just Mercy” tells the story of Bryan Stevenson, a criminal justice lawyer who moves to Alabama to represent wrongly convicted...