Lonely So Lonely

Lone So Lonely

For the first time in many years

I was on my own --- No tears

because my mind went back

to long ago when I was a P.O.W.

And in a space of 4 meters by 4 meters

I and eleven others existed horribly together.

Ate together drank together slept together

Endured each other’s night mares, heart stopping screams,

belching, farting, snoring, rolling over, thrashing out,

endless stupid arguments,

that led to blows and beatings black eyes and bloody noses

W suffered together bed bugs, fleas, lice, buzzing flies

Stench of unwashed bodies, boasting, lies, lack of space

Those long black nights when bitter cold allowed no sleep

and Summer’s heat drove us up the walls.

We were Barb- wire crazy confined to the area of the camp

Walked a path along the fence like caged animals in a zoo

That was fifty three years ago, seemed like yesterday

So who could care when today I had freedom and space

on a grassy bank I could lie back and look at the clouds

and luxuriously stretch out and stretch and stretch.

Yet I      was never the less    Lonely So Lonely

24^th Dec.1998 by Hillie Feldman