Kapos

I cannot sleep
or eat alone
they watch me wash
and go to the toilet
the whistles blow
they call the roll
spindly legs
emaciated bodies
diarrhea a common malady
and filth everywhere
matrons with numbers
on their dress
beat us with sticks
they tattooed numbers
on our arms
amid shrieks of pan
deeply in the skin
my stigmata for life
our heads were shaved
Kapos... Kapos... everywhere
we line up for everything
bugs infest our beds
and devour us in our sleep

05211979