I stood in her secret annex

Many years ago

And I still remember the patina of years past

Stuck to dingey walls and curling yellowed posters.

I climbed a dark narrow staircase

Just to stand in her shoes

And in the tiny rooms she and her family and friends shared

For two years.

Two long lonely years

Of

Depending on high-stakes kindness

And sustained silence to save them

From the devil —

A devil with horns hidden just above his brow

And a gouging flaming tail on full display.

Two fear-soaked years

Of

Never standing in the sun

And never kissing under the moon and stars

With toes toeing the grass,

Toes that feel their freedom in the cool dew.

She spent two years carving love-borne madnesses and unsinkable hopes

Into stones of eternity

While bloodied dragons hunted her blood,

And the blood of those like her.

If found —

Death would lead their way down that suffocating staircase

Into gallows of flame and silencing fire.

We

Of this era

In this part of the world

Do not know fear

And inconvenience.

We do not know true evil.

We do not know history.

That’s because we are too busy

Building more fires

And burning more books,

Blinding ourselves with the woke light of ignorance.

~~~

👽❤

~~~

*** I have no political affiliations, btw. Not left. Not right. Everyone is fucked as far as I’m concerned. I’m disgusted with society as of late. ***