Mega-purgatory
Mass in-carnation
The words of this particular article stood out to me today. It’s a disturbing read. The italicised words below are drawn from both actual dialogue and paraphrased communications used in the article.
Trigger warning: incarceration, death, abuse, despair, religious imagery, deportation.
Welcome to hell. Ten in a cell, each dressed in white, a shell of ourselves. The damned one laughs as the bell tolls overhead. He points at my chest, and smiles, the only exit is death. Welcome to the cemetery of living men, where every soul is already condemned. Who are we, creatures so far from home? A Dreamer, a seeker, a believer in ambition. Each a teacher in this land of prisons. Every moment, a waking nightmare. A site where the cursed chokes on despair. No lawyers. No phone calls. No judges. Just walls. Crawling toward salvation in this nation of “hope,” fallen angels expelled from our abode.
Author’s note:
The capitalised Dreamer refers to young people brought to the US as children, protected under the Obama-era DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) policy, many of whom have lived under constant threat of detention and deportation.
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It's been really bad here in the US. Like 1939 Germany bad. I live near LA so yeah... My neighbors and my ommunity are being taken from us off the street and sent to death camps. 😭 Part of why I have been struggling to read/write is all this.
Very sad and real poem.
The article was a harrowing read. The poem represents its essence really succinctly. Sad reality for many.