No Amo

(on the suicides of three Guantánamo Bay prisoners, June 10, 2006)

All means to freedom permanently barred,
Humanity, its image smeared and scarred,
By torment, murder, mutilation marred,
Set itself free, home-bound, to Heaven starred.

Three captives to the undiscovered land
Their souls dispatched, left life by their own hand
To life eternal, sole means of release
For tortured souls to find the path to peace.

How many tears with blood, how many pleas
This cup should pass from them, before the three
At last into the hands of him who took the thief
To Paradise, found ultimate relief?

Wrenching themselves from Limbo, Hell on earth,
Satanic realm of not a moment's mirth,
They foiled the devils of the prison key.
O Death, where is thy sting, thy victory?

June 2006