122b.-incomuncado-poem.pdf
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a Dispatches from a qo" Political Prisoner, ot se = a. 2 S September 11, 2001 me “Marilyn Buck
Marilyn Buck ‘Pag Fisonee aly ace win att elt eee, nd agi fb Ts, sh orga ait a Vea War 3 Cols Shades. ‘Shenoprtedne Bk itn Meet, andy cred forthe poe afextmiton fr the acelin Any. Masi i pty polit pts’ fon a exesin! eden aval thes psy he PEN uso Wing Progeny, Facing 2 Pe br pty 01:
before morning-slow Imove Julan aollers come. come sre the world trade center's exploding she's not sericus ‘no one would make ‘that up ‘would they? maybe live on TV video mantra replay: plane srash replay: collapse slow motion, dying méming no not a made-for-TV movie not a disaster film not Hollywood special e“fecis one tower falls the other follows do chickeas come home ts roost? enoimity crashes dazed disbelief (chickens won't roost here again pigeons either) I, a political prisoner, can conceive why but comprehension is no: complicity Tlcok around me I know nothing I know too much there is no answer in death norin dying Sa
Tknow soon others will die dark smoke spreads cinders of wrath rise the eagle's talons flex pungry for revenge (eyes locked on the shocking scene a Muslim sister whispers they will blame the Muslims) Eknow mary will feed the eagle the Palestinians? (Palestinians are-always suspect) Muslims? - Arabs? ~ many will die red upon the land Tean't comprehend men who commit suicide taking civilians with them (aus. postal worker Columbine high schoo! boys aman at McDonalds all-American suicide killers) civilians used as warheads T shudder and walk away from death to my cell Bich Kim runs in if there's aworld war three they will shout all the prisoners, won't they? I shake my head I don't think so €ebut you, political prisoners: 3
Tike you, won't they? Thope not (question marks the comers of my mouth: what do I know about the fine-print) turn to sweep the floor ~ find rhythms of the ordinary The Order: 9 AM PDT atap Ttum aguard come. with me I won't returr tocay stand before the captain we must lock you up ‘for your own safety (not for my: safety) you're intelligent. you know why T speculate, no not for my safety ‘you must be locked up just for your safety everything taken Ineed my glasses! keep the glasses
Tkeep a acutral face haadcuffed behind the beck cled in bile yellow for isolation and flip-flops keep outrage wrapped within my fists T swallow anger metal clangs swallow sound the concrete cocoon swallows me ‘The"SHU": Special Housing Unit "ikere was an-old woman. she lived itt a shoe" what did she do? Qf11 no prisoner may speak to you you may not speak to any prisoner. 9/12. ‘overheard voices there are terror s here wha.are the terrorists? silenze, everyone behind her door listens 9/14 alegal call Small relief its political -- Washington -> “not something i did 917. ~no more calls no visits no mail until further notice incormunicado ihang from.a winding string winding in this cocoon “i breathe deep the air isn't good here
(from outside the walls Susan yells ‘you'are not alone) i breathe deeper Sunday i get.a radio: KPPA lifeline Sikhs dead, detainees disappeared, political prisoners buried ceeper incommunicado i remember another September 11: Chile '73 more than 3,000 dead tortured assassinated disappeared. a ClA-supported coup (the WIC bombers aot-yet-born) many people there still meu Jetus mourn all the dead and the soon-to-die i worry about the prisoners isolation sucks at the spirit i am furious: inferred association held hostage in place of men with-u.s, weapons and CIA training an infernal joke the puppet masters laugh i laugh to stay’ sane before i explode in irony's flame we are hostages to blood-thirsty oil men ready to eplatter deserts with daisy-cutters ‘their collateral demage dead mothers and children. dead mother earil: ‘dead NBABS
(hasn't this happéried before? us. cavairy and smallpox blankets special forces and blanket bombing) (Susan is back she taps on the wall: you are not alone) i walk around the edges how many walk on edges? what edges do the Palestinians walk? cold radiates whitswashed walls press against my edges suspend animation no butterflies to breek ‘out no silken thread to weave sweet dreams panic rises in my throat thick white choking cold so cold i swing hope on a thread a transparent sliver it crashes against the cinderblocks i drop frozen chrysalis cold into a coffin box Night i lay down on suspect blankers a Cyclops light pins me onto the metal cot an altar for vengefiil gods metal restraints for hands and Zeet & “just in'case" y wt
‘the suicide celi has ghosts desperate women have lain here chainéd four-pointed ‘to command composure sacrificed to voyéur visions through the glass starkly through a burqa window i don't went to think of i i meditate i think of other politicals behind wires ‘nd walls i remember the assaulted the accidental the collaterally damaged Killed, corrected, coerced Muslims Christians Zionists selfrighteous missiles of mayhem and retribution i remember Afghani women he'd hostage inside indigo. coccons cells smaller than a confessional box my veil is this cel i will put on no other the light, darn the light the Cyclops spies i toss between the tomb-thiek walls how long will this go on? will my bones break into ice shards or will they desiccate stranded in this cell at last i doze fill dawn’ the, Cyclops watches attey
lunging keys, slamming metal traps shift change daylight creeps inside izise: i mus: seek cycles inside -withont cloeks or mirrors without all-but i The Weekend a glacier, daylight advances impexceptibly a plank of light teeters ‘on the edge of boaré-faced windows travels obliquely across then it's gone warmth fades fast the Zoud trap opens cold eggs the color of oar clothes plunk — weékend brunch : swallow in silence silence flees before sudden cacopaony wo women beat plastic bowls on meval coors. ‘we want rec - we wantrec the ‘sun iz out we want out ny head is wrapped in metallic clanger bang ‘bang dang i stay silent i bite my lip. hours pass:'shitt change 2:00 ‘the sun drops fast behind the wall Sinally: who wants recreation? Ido #
me too jet me out first voices reach through the metal doors food traps clank handcuffs click one by one women are led W wire cages joy rings londer han the chains iwait no guard comes ibreak silence you didn’t ask me disembodied denial echoes through the walls ‘you can't go with the.others ‘wait not my decision iwill miss the sundrops "Perchance to Dream" night comes j fall exhausted into sleep ” i dream of Dresden Hanoi Baghdad “whistles scream walls fall apart in waves Dali deseris watches tick, waterdrip dream shift; © sivords of steel glint against the sky a swartn and puff, dark blocd drops “ bituminoas birds bank spread-eagled free fall Naga
ashes ashes they all fall down dark flashes cherry splashes on concrete Babel towers collapse in orying heaps a-curtain rises gray covers gladiators draped across the stage i wake cold-throated ‘what time is it? my limbs locked beneath a concrete rockslide is this my tomd falling on me? any chest is piled rock-heavy ‘bodies rise from the shallows of my breath graze my eyes and flee ‘actos the desert scape shadow prints dissipate ath i awake? the Cyclops stabs my eye imust be awake i wrap a scratchy towel around my face i eswape elevtriv night into sightlessness a ghost voice wails whai time is it? ‘A cep male boom 1:24, go 10 sleep no, turn on the radio, talk to me no! uu! please no, my eyes blink inside their blind little Brueghel men dance ‘wooden-shoe notes ruthless on my sleep 'sommd streams woman's babble z
pools beneath the docr ‘hunker under the winding sheet “ does she stop talking or do i descend? idon't remember shift change shift change guards come and go officials pass by peering into our crypt-cages taking notes, verifying Monday, September 24 the captain appears we may release you today ajter 2:00 2:00 comes and goes the shift changes i wait and wonder: will other politicals be releesed today i wait hope is the inoment's thief don't wait! atlast: Buck roll out {leap a jack-in-the-box ready ready the metal key clangs just before the 4:00 count igasp relief and hurry through before the gates slam shat and iam left below Eurydice whora O-pheus glimpsed ‘moment soon WBBM
‘ step out. ‘a four o'clock unfolding, fuchsia in the shading light ‘back into the routine pris’ner's plight December 2001 This poem appeared in Joy James, editor, Imprisoned Intellectuals: America's Politica! Prisorers Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion, March 2003 FOURTEEN
For more information about Marilyn, visit wew.prigonactivist org/ppstpows/marilyabnel,
\\ True Leap - Fevalttconal copier i Fo ex, ABC AUSTIN, TEXAS 78712 FARA-LEGAL SERVICES —_—




a Dispatches
from a
qo" Political Prisoner,

ot

se
=
a.
2
S

September 11, 2001

me “Marilyn Buck




Marilyn Buck

‘Pag Fisonee aly ace win att elt eee,
nd agi fb Ts, sh orga ait a Vea War
3 Cols Shades.

‘Shenoprtedne Bk itn Meet,

andy cred forthe poe afextmiton fr the
acelin Any.



Masi i pty polit pts’ fon a exesin!
eden aval thes psy he PEN uso Wing Progeny,
Facing 2 Pe br pty 01:
before
morning-slow
Imove
Julan aollers
come. come sre
the world trade center's
exploding

she's not sericus
‘no one would make ‘that up
‘would they?
maybe
live on TV
video mantra
replay: plane srash
replay: collapse
slow motion, dying méming

no not a made-for-TV movie
not a disaster film
not Hollywood special e“fecis
one tower falls
the other follows

do chickeas come home ts roost?
enoimity crashes
dazed disbelief
(chickens won't roost here again
pigeons either)

I, a political prisoner, can
conceive why
but comprehension is no: complicity
Tlcok around me
I know nothing
I know too much
there is no answer in death
norin dying

Sa
Tknow
soon others will die
dark smoke spreads
cinders of wrath rise
the eagle's talons flex
pungry for revenge

(eyes locked on the shocking scene
a Muslim sister whispers
they will blame the Muslims)

Eknow
mary will feed the eagle
the Palestinians?
(Palestinians are-always suspect)
Muslims? - Arabs?
~ many will die red upon the land



Tean't comprehend
men who commit suicide
taking civilians with them
(aus. postal worker
Columbine high schoo! boys
aman at McDonalds
all-American suicide killers)

civilians

used as warheads

T shudder and walk away
from death
to my cell

Bich Kim runs in

if there's aworld war three

they will shout all the prisoners, won't they?

I shake my head
I don't think so
€ebut you, political prisoners:

3
Tike you, won't they?
Thope not
(question marks
the comers of my mouth:
what do I know
about the fine-print)

turn to sweep the floor
~ find rhythms of the ordinary

The Order: 9 AM PDT

atap
Ttum

aguard
come. with me

I won't returr tocay

stand before the captain
we must lock you up
‘for your own safety
(not for my: safety)
you're intelligent. you know why
T speculate, no
not for my safety
‘you must be locked up
just for your safety



everything taken
Ineed my glasses!
keep the glasses
Tkeep a acutral face
haadcuffed behind the beck
cled in bile yellow for isolation

and flip-flops

keep outrage
wrapped within my fists
T swallow anger
metal clangs swallow sound
the concrete cocoon swallows me

‘The"SHU": Special Housing Unit

"ikere was an-old woman.
she lived itt a shoe"
what did she do?

Qf11 no prisoner may speak to you
you may not speak to any prisoner.
9/12. ‘overheard voices
there are terror s here
wha.are the terrorists?
silenze, everyone behind her door listens
9/14 alegal call





Small relief its political -- Washington ->
“not something i did
917. ~no more calls
no visits
no mail
until further notice
incormunicado
ihang from.a winding string
winding in this cocoon
“i breathe deep

the air isn't good here


(from outside the walls Susan yells
‘you'are not alone)
i breathe deeper

Sunday i get.a radio: KPPA lifeline
Sikhs dead, detainees disappeared,
political prisoners buried ceeper

incommunicado

i remember another September 11: Chile '73

more than 3,000 dead
tortured assassinated disappeared.
a ClA-supported coup
(the WIC bombers aot-yet-born)
many people there still meu
Jetus mourn all the dead
and the soon-to-die

i worry about the prisoners
isolation sucks at the spirit

i am furious: inferred association
held hostage in place of men
with-u.s, weapons and CIA training
an infernal joke
the puppet masters laugh

i laugh to stay’ sane
before i explode in irony's flame

we are hostages

to blood-thirsty oil men

ready to eplatter deserts

with daisy-cutters

‘their collateral demage
dead mothers and children.
dead mother earil:

‘dead



NBABS
(hasn't this happéried before?
us. cavairy and smallpox blankets
special forces and blanket bombing)

(Susan is back
she taps on the wall: you are not alone)

i walk around the edges
how many walk on edges?
what edges do the Palestinians walk?

cold radiates whitswashed
walls press against my edges
suspend animation
no butterflies to breek ‘out
no silken thread to weave sweet dreams

panic rises in my throat
thick white choking cold

so cold

i swing hope on a thread
a transparent sliver it crashes
against the cinderblocks

i drop
frozen chrysalis
cold into a coffin box

Night

i lay down on suspect blankers
a Cyclops light pins me
onto the metal cot
an altar for vengefiil gods
metal restraints for hands and Zeet

& “just in'case"
y

wt
‘the suicide celi has ghosts
desperate women
have lain here chainéd four-pointed
‘to command composure
sacrificed to voyéur visions
through the glass starkly
through a burqa window
i don't went to think of i
i meditate
i think of other politicals
behind wires ‘nd walls
i remember the assaulted
the accidental
the collaterally damaged
Killed, corrected, coerced



Muslims Christians Zionists
selfrighteous missiles
of mayhem and retribution

i remember Afghani women he'd hostage
inside indigo. coccons
cells smaller than a confessional box

my veil is this cel
i will put on no other



the light, darn the light
the Cyclops spies
i toss between the tomb-thiek walls
how long will this go on?
will my bones break
into ice shards or will they desiccate
stranded in this cell

at last i doze
fill dawn’ the, Cyclops watches

attey
lunging keys, slamming metal traps
shift change
daylight creeps inside
izise: i mus: seek cycles
inside
-withont cloeks or mirrors
without all-but i

The Weekend

a glacier, daylight advances
impexceptibly
a plank of light teeters
‘on the edge of boaré-faced windows
travels obliquely across
then it's gone
warmth fades fast

the Zoud trap opens
cold eggs the color of oar clothes
plunk — weékend brunch

: swallow in silence

silence flees before sudden cacopaony

wo women beat plastic bowls on meval coors.
‘we want rec - we wantrec
the ‘sun iz out we want out

ny head is wrapped in metallic clanger
bang ‘bang dang

i stay silent

i bite my lip.

hours pass:'shitt change 2:00
‘the sun drops fast behind the wall
Sinally: who wants recreation?
Ido

#
me too
jet me out first

voices reach through the metal doors
food traps clank
handcuffs click
one by one women are led

W wire cages

joy rings londer han the chains

iwait
no guard comes
ibreak silence
you didn’t ask me
disembodied denial echoes through the walls
‘you can't go with the.others
‘wait
not my decision
iwill miss the sundrops

"Perchance to Dream"

night comes
j fall exhausted into sleep ”
i dream of Dresden Hanoi Baghdad
“whistles scream
walls fall apart
in waves
Dali deseris
watches tick,
waterdrip
dream shift; ©
sivords of steel glint against the sky
a swartn and puff,
dark blocd drops
“ bituminoas birds bank
spread-eagled free fall

Naga
ashes ashes they all fall
down dark flashes
cherry splashes on concrete
Babel towers collapse in orying heaps
a-curtain rises gray
covers gladiators draped across the stage

i wake cold-throated
‘what time is it?

my limbs locked

beneath a concrete rockslide
is this my tomd falling on me?

any chest is piled rock-heavy
‘bodies rise from the shallows of my breath
graze my eyes and flee
‘actos the desert scape
shadow prints dissipate
ath i awake?

the Cyclops stabs my eye
imust be awake

i wrap a scratchy towel

around my face

i eswape elevtriv night
into sightlessness

a ghost voice wails
whai time is it?
‘A cep male boom
1:24, go 10 sleep
no, turn on the radio, talk to me
no! uu! please no, my eyes blink
inside their blind
little Brueghel men dance
‘wooden-shoe notes
ruthless on my sleep
'sommd streams woman's babble

z
pools beneath the docr
‘hunker under the winding sheet “



does she stop talking
or do i descend?

idon't remember

shift change
shift change
guards come and go
officials pass by peering
into our crypt-cages
taking notes, verifying

Monday, September 24

the captain appears

we may release you today ajter 2:00

2:00 comes and goes

the shift changes

i wait and wonder: will other politicals be releesed today
i wait

hope is the inoment's thief
don't wait!

atlast: Buck roll out
{leap a jack-in-the-box
ready
ready
the metal key clangs just before the 4:00 count
igasp relief
and hurry through before the gates slam
shat and iam left below
Eurydice whora O-pheus glimpsed
‘moment soon

WBBM
‘ step out.
‘a four o'clock unfolding, fuchsia in the shading light

‘back into the routine pris’ner's plight

December 2001

This poem appeared in Joy James, editor, Imprisoned Intellectuals:
America's Politica! Prisorers Write on Life, Liberation, and
Rebellion, March 2003

FOURTEEN


For more information about Marilyn, visit
wew.prigonactivist org/ppstpows/marilyabnel,
\ True Leap

- Fevalttconal copier



i Fo ex,
ABC AUSTIN, TEXAS 78712

FARA-LEGAL
SERVICES —_—