Return from Exile
Coming to my senses…
I'm at a loss
to explain
what has happened
and what hasn't.
All I'm aware of
is loss, betrayal…
and pain.
I feel odd…
and misplaced,
like I'm waking up to a war
without knowing which side I'm on…
or what I believe in.
What language do I speak?
I hear
only haunting questions.
I see
an intricate pageant
of deception
when I close my eyes.
What role did I play?
My lifelong touchstones
have turned to sand and
ashes.
Fierce darkness and
hard to breathe.
Am I now enslaved?
Or free?
I feel cut off
in solitary confinement-
without due process.
Only humiliation
interrogation
and scars.
I trust no one
And am paying the price of
misplaced suspicions.
I'm under suspicion myself.
Why?
Why am I here?
and where are all the others?
Unmasking, stripping… and
A relentless internal debriefing.
When will there be a softening of this vigilance?
When will I be able to rest?
Have I defected?
I'm blacklisted…and shunned
beginning with the merest whisper of disloyalty.
Mock trials, inadequate defense
accused, prosecuted…
Now
banished.
I'm under surveillance wherever I go.
So, I live by candlelight
and remain at a loss
to explain
what has happened,
and what hasn't.
I review history,
investigate
and find questions,
years of dross
or worse.
Where
O where is my homeland?
Who
are my people?
By T., a former Assembly member, May 2004
October 14, 2006, by M.: "This is an incredible poem. It is absolutely beautiful."