How I Never Knew Winnie

How I Never Knew Winnie

version 2

 

I’d never given birth, only witnessed

the flesh of the one I love

after it had already been cut

open in a sterile room.

I’d never had to bear

the terrified eyes of my children

as strangers broke our embrace

and dragged me away.

I’d never been forced

to stay in one room

with three doors for 491 days

with a light that never went out.

I’d never slept on a cement floor

as my bed, wrapped my feeble limbs

in blankets stiffened

by someone else’s dried blood.

Certain that we’re more than the details

collected after we die, I wonder,

if we had known each other,

what she would’ve told no one but me.

-o-