hate like lightning

Another piece inspired by Japanese Internment Camps.

come with us if you want to live

that’s not what they said

and that’s not what i heard

but those are the words i wish

had dripped through thin pink lips

on sand-dune skin so unlike my own

 

they grabbed me from my home

on a winter afternoon

gave me five minutes to collect myself

and my most treasured treasures

tossed me into the bed

of a roaring monster on four wheels

 

i should have felt fear not shame

as we rumbled down the street

heads in doorways and windows

all eyes on me until they weren’t

until we stopped fast as thunder and

they slithered to the road

 

they were on the house

in three seconds flat

quick as the sin they reveled in

and in no time but also forever time

i was no longer alone

in the belly of this beast

 

there were five of them

a mother a father a son and two daughters

clutching each other

rivers on cheeks

a flood in the paddy fields

realization hitting sudden as a storm

 

we’d all heard the whispers

every day for weeks

rumors and fear thick as

the judgmental eyes following me

in the market just yesterday

when everything was still the same

 

and now nothing is the same

my home is no longer mine

my city is no longer mine

i am no longer mine

i am now property

 

they said they did this to protect us

citizens were up in arms

they wanted to blame us for this war

they called for blood

the government said they were

doing this for our own good

 

but we were little more than rabbits

squished in ramshackle cages of wood

thousands in a warren made for hundreds

we were rabbits unprepared

no food stored away for winter

and nothing growing for us to eat

 

we were ill and bleeding

broken and bruised

and we were not people

we were animals

we were toys

we were worthless

 

we were told this was temporary

it would all be over soon

we would be free eventually

and we would be

just not the way D.C. intended

but instead the way God planned

the light was coming for us

no need to pack this time

heaven is a forest

space aplenty

hunger irrelevant

and acceptance mandatory

 

the end struck like lightning

unpredictable and unplanned

but not entirely unwelcome

for with lightning comes rain

to cleanse the waste of life

this camp has wrought