Angola Poem by Geoff Lathy

Cold eyes stare into bleak darkness
As present voices fade out,
As muscles tighten and hands shake,
As eyelids blink and breathing shallows,
as guts tighten and body falls
into a wall of images that
blind thought and tear emotion,
while eyes water and throat tightens
and spirit fades and hope lessens
and pictures flash and noises shriek
and senses heighten and smells sicken
and mind contracts as darkness traps
voices and words and horrible feeling
and misery chokes my silent tears
and empty words and voiceless cries
and imagined fears unrelenting hold
and gasping crying bewildered fall
in deathless prose of sleepless foes
my darkened eyes and empty void
and deafened ears and marbled limbs
and breathless sighs and unuttered words
all hold my soul in bitter servitude.