solitary confinement –what’s in this name
that glibly trips off the tongue?
pacification is its purported aim
to be placed inside a concrete box
in a prison called a super max
spartan it measures five by nine feet
with three to seven hours
outside it per week
“it extorts few cries that human ears can hear,”
so said Charles Dickens
referring to isolation and fear
that affect the body, especially the brain
silent screams for sympathy fall in vain
manifesting the torture of psychic pain
over eighty thousand in the US
suffer this fate
a punishment viewed
as cruel and unusual
yet still it’s maintained
In California alone
nearly a thousand are held
for ten or more years
locked in these cells
whom can we blame?
just south of our border
over two million are jailed
retribution and vengeance are hailed
rehabilitation considered as failed
but in their defence
strong voices have spoken
exposing a penal system
so terribly broken
Bio
Love of poetry, doggerel and rant began for Makarchuk in a rural school she attended in northern Saskatchewan. She co-coordinated the First International Festival of Poetry of Resistance and coordinated the third one. She has written radio copy, news articles and published a chapter in a collection of essays in “Cuba Solidarity in Canada”, edited by Nino Pagliccia. She edited “IFPOR Anthology 2011, vol.1” and her issue-oriented poetry is also found in “Crossing Borders”, edited by Bruce Kauffman; and “Resistance Poetry 2”, edited by Roger Langen. In the book “Bottom of the Wine Jar”, launched August 13th, 2016, she is published as one of four poets, two Canadian and two Cuban. She is an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets and Vice-President of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance.
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