Work Text:
The Repository
by Adrienne Lewis
Their eyes stare into the sky
awaiting salvation.
Dignity was cast off with their clothes.
Thin pale flesh,
stretched tightly over bones;
they are shadows of their former selves.
Each new member
steps to the pit and looks upon his future,
before falling in.
Blood spilling from the fatal wound cascades over the others.
The soldiers are drunk on this sick cocktail of atrocity.
A sprinkling of dirt completes their burial.
As the executioners leave, a hand grapples for the sunlight.
Pulling himself to safety, he lingers at the repository,
Paying respect to those that perished.
Searching the blue expanse above him, he curses his salvation.
Part of him remains in the tomb.
He can hear the others whispering to him;
even now.
Adrienne Lewis
Copyright 1999