Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
William WoolfittApril 26, 2019

At Guantánamo, indefinite detainees
are known as the forever prisoners.

Carried to the feeding block by a forced cell
extraction team, laxative and vanilla Ensure
entering him through the tube in his nose,
tied to the restraint chair, he sees the photos
in National Geographic (mildewed, tattered)
he’s pored over. He has by heart the gondolas
of Venice, can summon a teakwood dhow.

He doesn’t vomit; the team carries him back.

In a cellblock in Camp 6, his ankles chained,
he stains cardboard with coffee, timbers
his clipper ship, ravels his prayer cap
for rigging, ties fine knots. While the anchor
(a bottle lid) grabs the sea-bottom, holds fast,
his rag-sails are ballooning with wind.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

A Reflection for Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent, by Ashley McKinless
Ashley McKinlessApril 02, 2025
A Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinApril 02, 2025
During his long and fruitful pontificate, St. John Paul II embraced the entire world, which stands yet again in need of his blessing, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said.
Father Marko Rupnik, a well-known priest and artist, has been accused of sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing more than 20 women.