That lonesome corridor
welcomes me with its
sinister silence.
Eyes peering at me through grated steel
receive my entrance.
I am walking with shackled legs.
My cuffed hands, trembling,
chained to the waist of an orange jump-suit
I was forced to wear.
Forcefully, my captors lead me along.
Eyes once peering are now penetrating
as I draw closer.
Mechanically, a door opens, I am thrown into
a barren cell.
Unleashed from shackles, cuffs, and chains–
strip-searched, degraded, dehumanized–
the door closes, my captors leave me
to my own devices:
Gazing out through grated steel,
I become the peering eyes.
Days languishing by, lonely are the nights.
Empty is my stomach, cold is my heart.
Amongst me confined in that lonesome corridor-
separated by stone and grated steel-
eleven other men, but none within my reach.
Breaking the silence:
Some scream from torture;
silence broken, my soul is pierced in the process.
Breaking the silence:
Some scream from delusion;
silence broken, my soul is pierced in the process.
Under the guise of Justice-
lurking, wreaking havoc-
uncivilized brutality is:
Breeding hatred-
bleeding
breathing
seething
hatred!
To this, I bare witness.
I am:
My eyes and my mind penetrating.
I am:
Solitary confinement.
Three hundred days pass, the door opens,
I make my exit:
My heart, pieces of it,
remain behind in that barren cell.