internal prisoner [of war]
I’ve not yet started living
having been bogged down
in a dissident quagmire
wishing incessantly to be
drugged & tortured
by a make-believe enemy
[instead I am held
against my will
charged w/imaginary crimes
against humanity]
again I plea
I’ve not engaged in any sort
of alleged insanity
—and if you would be so kind
to free me from these chains
I will set out on foot
with neither contraband
nor weaponry
in a direction opposite
from my mother’s love
with nary a thought
to kill again
october two thousand twenty-two
copyright j matthew waters
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