in a culture of memory massacre
remembrance is an antidote to annihilation
i want to remember what “never happened”
i want to fill in the blanks between the words they wrote down
i want to hear the stories that were only spoken
i want to speak the language of the land
i want to remember what was beaten out, burned down, killed off and buried deep
i want to resurface
gasping for air and spluttering
corded to death
severed from time
freed of language
the body and mind no longer
in sharp separation
bound in responsibility
interconnected isotopes
now i am truly alive