I came into the world, locked up in a death camp,
imprisoned for years with the same people.

This was my life, my only existence.
I knew nothing else except death and decay.

How much more can we all take?
The world is alien to people and peace.
When will we all wake up from our sleeping?
We can’t just go on in the same old ways.

For years, I was confined with pain all around me.
For years, I saw and smelt nothing but death.
For years, I was stepping over decaying corpses.
The mutilated remains of historical past.

We all spent years killing and maiming,
making peoples’ lives such a great misery.
We all just took whatever we wanted,
making people suffer for our own selfish greed.

But all this suffering didn’t affect me.
It was my whole life, my only real world.
No other reality came into vision.
This was my only true view of the world.

For years, I was subjected to pain and distortions,
which I accepted as nothing but the norm.
I believed that suffering would always continue,
that death and decay could never be stopped.

But in the outside world, I saw a new vision.
The real world around me was different and new.
I can now see a new life, a bright new reality.
A different life in a different light.

You see, I accepted it just without question.
I couldn’t see anything but despair and loss.
I thought we were powerless and had no future.
I believed it all for I knew no better.

Copyright: Gordon Warren (1981)