Once upon a time I lived <br />in a hut with ten other guys <br />in a village near Kaesong <br />north of the 38th parallel <br /> <br />Snow fell that February <br />drifting in row on row <br />on the rice paddies <br />and in the village street <br /> <br />We slept spooning <br />guy to guy on the floor <br />dreaming of home <br />and the girls we left <br /> <br />It was a dream world <br />then and now as I recall <br />the awful brutality <br />of our awkward life <br /> <br />We foraged like insects <br />for leftovers from rice <br />infested with droppings <br />of the silent mice <br /> <br />We were less than human <br />and we felt ashamed <br />to have become prisoners <br />of bestial captors <br /> <br />Three years in captivity <br />and we came home <br />abashed and silent <br />to another country!<br /><br />Michael Pruchnicki<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-village-near-kaesong/
