"When Will Solitary End?" by Carlos Marvin Argueta Jr.
When Will Solitary End?
I sit in solitary confinement,
Monitored and evaluated,
Psychologically tested,
Tortured in more ways than I care
To remember or burden you with,
With hopes I’d crack and beg,
Beg to be let out of this torturous place
And crack, losing the bit of sanity I have left
Like so many others before me and so many others
Yet to fall, fall prey to the prison’s administrators,
To the countless tactical torturous games they play.
I am but one of a few hundred who still stand strong,
Fighting to survive, accumulating deep embedded scars
With each passing day, learning to be resilient to all
That’s thrown and piled up against me
In such a difficult, miserable place.
Lonely and deprived of so much, I sit here
Beyond desperate for a helping hand, for something,
Someone, for a movement, for human rights lawyers
And all the advocates out there to put an end
To this heinous practice of solitary confinement
And take me away from this place with my dignity intact.
I hope it’s soon, before many more fall prey
And lose themselves in this dungeon of hell and misery
That’s been in place for far too long.
_____
My actions will soon come
Hoping that they’ll draw the attention needed
To end this heinous practice
Once and for all.