WAR Poem: Captivity, by Anastasia Mendonca

Barbed wires

Barbed wires
Sheltered from within
God’s grace
It was all a mistake

On a cliff
Edge
No escape

Surrender
My dear
And let me whither.

Drums

Drum Drum
The beats of the dumb
The unintelligent, scrawny mass come

Known as the yewts
We are just dumb, that’s all.

We speak Ghetto grammar
We are the unintelligent, scrawny mass of the manor.

Butterfly scape

Erotella
Hatch open
Break away
Time is of the essence

Your shell is no longer a safe haven
It is poisoning you
Erotella
I beg you
Burst through
Time is of the essence

Tosena Splendida
Is awaiting you
Papilio is circling you
Eupale illuminates
Fenutia sparkles
Mynes is lightening

Strike
Heliconius the devil
Come on

You outshine them all
Come out
We want you.
Now.

Plaster

The smoothed edged plaster,
The crowning cornices,
The ornamental mouldings,
The gilded dome of doom.
Oh, the mishaps.

That tweaks and rips
For every sole footstep
Is a silent cry
Of an imprisoned youth.

Youth

Pleading cries
No value of life

A bullseye on my back

Trying to be the light
Of my parents’ eyes

Armed and discharged

Contact lost
Denial at its finest

An impossible youth

Penalty

Plea of guilt
Discharged and met with shame

Payment of dysfunction
Repute of reality

Right or wrong
State of mind undecided

Testimonial controversy
Theories of psyche

Youth explained
An ‘infant brain’

Plea of guilt
Discharged and met with shame.

Pack

God’s law of superiority
Can you differentiate between the two?

Prosecute

Refusal to speak
Incapable of speech
The odd movement
A head tilt here and there
Unbathed and unkempt
A dishevelled old man
Silenced.