Trapped - Bob Senesac

photograph 
15" x 15"
 
Why?
By M. L. Kite
 
Why am I here? I’m a good citizen. I pay my taxes, obey the law, voted for him. 
And all these other people, why are they here? What did they do? They can’t all be criminals. What is going on? I know, at one time we were the crown jewel of Europe. Everybody imitated us, read our literature, listened to our music, bought our machines, marveled at how well we functioned. And we knew it. We looked around Europe, at Belgium, messy, dirty people. France, bunch of drunks. Spain, can’t get out of their own way. Italians can’t function outside the opera house. And forget those backward ignorant Russians. They’re not even European, why should we care about them?
We were superior, everybody knew it. Even those nose-in-the-air English knew it. Why shouldn’t we be the dominant power? We were the best Europe had to offer.
But now they say that Jews aren’t really Germans. When did that happen? Our blood watered the vineyards of France as much as anybody’s. We breathed that gas like everybody else. Millions of us voted for him. We saw he would stop the inflation, stop paying those millions to other countries. Get us going again.
Now we are in this camp just outside Dachau. Nice little town. My cousin Jacob and his family live there. Have for generations, good Germans all of them. Veterans too, served the Kaiser proudly.
What is that white cloud?  
 
 
Behind My Walls
By Alycin Hayes
 
I scream, but you don’t hear me
 I’m screaming with my mind
 
I cry, but you don’t see me
 I hold my tears inside
 
I reach, but you don’t feel me
I touch opaque walls 
 
I never let you know me,
and I was just as blind
 
My heart sends out a beacon
no one can ever see
 
I ache, I cannot breathe…
 
I am a lonely lighthouse,
trapped inside perpetually.