(Pollsmoor Prison 3 April 1989, written during a panic attack during a hunger strike for the release of political prisoners)
Gertrude Fester
Hold! Hold onto your mind!
Do not let dumb fascists taunt you!
Psychologically terrorise you!
Psychologically pulverise you!
Do not let them break you
crumble you
bit
by
bit
into a seething mass of unbridled emotions
random pieces of yourself, your soul
flung furiously
scattered sporadically
like
bits of shit
onto cell walls.
Hold onto your anger, contain it
Do not let it like
a malignant cell spread insidiously
throughout
your body cells, your soul
eating it up
devouring your very self
your soul
consuming the residue of your humanity
your dignity
do not let them dehumanise you further
in this hell hole of hostility
this cell
claustrophobically covering you
closing in on you
overwhelming you
the powerful over the powerless
your soul
your spirit
slouched in yourself
your pent-up frustrations
cloud your brain
imprison your soul
like they imprison your body
your hands shiver
vibrating with impotence
Though your mind cannot form clear thoughts
systematise them
though your hands cannot produce polished letters
go on
write on
contain your mind
hold onto your thoughts
write them down!
You paralysed
powerless in prison
hold onto life, to sanity
soothe your tormented soul
push prod on to pusillanimity
to poetic purgation
Let Calliope inspire your spirit
to soar the skies
let your tears not dissipate your spirit
but rather
feed new strength into you
infuse you with faith
that the spirit shall not be caged
that the powerless shall free themselves from
indignity and oppression
let your pen
however slow
empower you through poetry
as your pen pours out your troubled thoughts
jettisoned like flotsam onto paper
so too
shall strength be sieved into your soul.
Featured at The Red Wheelbarrow with the Life Riting Collective on 21 July 2022
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