FOUR YEARS

Four years soon now since

I was snatched from you

from my comrades

from my people

they tied me up

gagged me

blindfolded me

they banned my poems

my name

they exiled me to an island

of concrete and rust

they placed a number

on the back of my absence

they deprived me of

the books I love

of news

of music

and let me see you

fifteen minutes a week

through two sets of bars separated by an alley

and they were always there

drinking the blood of our words

with a timer

instead of a brain