Pison poem

Waiting for rights
One man stands
He looks for freedom
But will never be able to find it

Trapped in a prison
With three generations of his family
He breaks and releases rocks
At the hands of sadistic wardens
A solitary moment of relaxation never comes

Back in the cell, crammed with the rest of his family
A man does the rounds, bringing a thin soup to all the prisoners
The soup, of cabbage and potato, can barely fill their ravenous appetites, but is all they have
The family takes the food eagerly, and share the food among themselves
Before long, the bowl is empty, but their hunger still remains

It is not very long before all the lights go off in the prison
Everyone must head off to sleep
Anyone found still awake faces brutal punishment
Our prisoner, the lone man from earlier, cannot fall asleep
And yet, he knows he must, for if he does not, punishment will follow
He suppresses the momentary burst of energy and falls asleep

It is a night where the man is crammed with several family members
Sleeping on the cold, hard floor, the man has never known the comfort of a warm bed
He tosses and turns, trying carefully to avoid hitting his family members
And barely, just barely, managing to succeed

The morning arrives with a loud, bleating call from the warden
“Up and atom, maggots!” he shouts into the room.
All the family, in varying states of sleepiness, must nonetheless awaken
They all get out, save for one.
A small, young boy, still sleeping, does not awaken.
The warden says that “He must awaken, or else, he will face punishment.”
The mother, desperate to prevent her child from suffering punishment, tries to wake him

She shouts at him multiple times but he does not awaken
He still remained asleep
The warden turns back to the mother and says “If he does not awaken, I will awaken him myself.”

At the last moment, the mother grows desperate
She has heard stories about the punishments given to those who do not awaken
Because of this, she decides to sacrifice herself for her son's sake
“Take me instead of him” she says to the warden
“He's a small child who needs his sleep.”
The warden realizes the affection the mother has for her son, and unleashes a predatory smile.
He has power over her through the love she has for her son, and the warden knows it
“Very well. I will let the young boy sleep. However, there is still one more thing I need out of you.”
“What do you need” asks the woman.
“I need you” replies the warden
“When?” inquired the woman
“Now.” stated the warden as a predatory smile formed on his face.

He realizes, however, that he cannot leave the family on their own.
Because of this, he calls a fellow warden, Kim Gyeong-en, to dispatch the family
“Kim, come here! I demand that you extract this family while I attend this young woman.”
“I subsume myself to your will, most great warden” said Kim
“Then head off” replied the warden

Before long, he arrives at the front of the family, and drags them to the communal showers
Everyone, male and female, young and old, must strip themselves nude in front of the guards
They must shower in cold water in terrible conditions
The family's been used to these conditions, and yet, they remain uneasy as they shower.

Soon, the shower is done, and the group are handed clothing for the work they must do.
They put the jumpsuits on, and head outside, hoping, silently, that against all hope, that some miracle would befall them.
Now outside, they are given pick axes to break the many rocks that surround the prison.
Their task is long, monotonous, and laborious
No breaks are given to them, however, save for one lunch break.

As they labor and struggle against the elements,
We see the young mother of the child in a locked room with the warden.
The locked room was lit by a single solitary lightbulb
Inside it was a desk with a chair and a large, comfortable bed.
All the walls were painted with bright, disorienting white
He approaches her with a smile and with a cool demeanor.
“I've always heard that the broken girls are the most sensuous. Is that true?”
The woman, still unaware of what is going on, ask the man “What am I doing here?”
The warden replies to her “You're here to do what I tell you to do, no questions asked.”
The woman leans back and asks him “and what happens if I refuse?”
Coyly, the man replies “Well, I could very easily make you disappear. It's not like our Dear Leader will complain.”

A chill entered into the woman as she became aware of the implications of the man's statement
She realized that if he denied his sensual desires, that she could, all too easily, end up being killed.
She thought of her son, who she loved and cared for, and who she wanted to see grow up
She thought of her husband, out there, working, struggling to break mighty rocks
She thought of all the prisoners in their gulag, seemingly unnoticed by the rest of the world
Even though she wanted nothing more than to break from this gulag, where she had been her whole life, she could not break out this way.
Therefore, she turned to the warden.
“I accept your proposal” she said to him.

“Smart girl” replies the warden as he attempted to push back his grin.
The man soon delivered a set of crisp instructions to the woman.
“Take off your shoes” the warden stated to her, and as soon as the words were uttered, the shoes left her feet, and she was now barefoot. Next came the words “Take off your dress.” This time, she was slightly more reluctant, yet still took off her dress. Now, she was nearly nude. Her breasts exposed, the warden stared at them.

There was still one more layer of clothing she had to remove before the warden was satisfied.
Her panty was still on, and this was something which was shameful to the warden.
“Take your panty off” said the warden.
This removal was the one which the woman expressed the greatest reluctance to doing, and yet, she still took it off.

Now, she was fully nude.
She was ashamed and demeaned, especially since the warden remained fully clothed.
It would not be long, however, before that ceased to be the case.

The warden first removed his military cap, exposing his head of closely-cropped black hair to the wind.
He then began to remove the army coat which provided coverage, warmth, and a reflection of the status he had.
This was promptly followed by the army undershirt.
All these items were placed on the chair.

Now shirtless, the warden was not content.
He first removed his army boots, placing them to a corner of the room.
The socks soon followed, and before long, the warden was also barefoot.
The black belt soon followed alongside the pair of black pants.
Only the underwear remained as an article of clothing.
Soon, he removed the underwear as well, as he became fully nude.

While he undressed himself, the woman remained afraid but unable to escape.
Soon, he turned his predatory eyes to the woman.
Before long, he pushed her on the bed.
Pushing himself into the bed as well, he began to caress and touch her
Touching her in places she had never before been touched, she felt tension build up
On the one hand, the warden was treating her like a sexual object to be used and disposed of
On the other hand, the sensation, when all feelings of abuse and mistreatment were removed, did feel pleasurable.
She decided to divorce her emotions from engagement in the sexual act and gave herself to the warden.

He was next to her on the bed, and as he stroked her, she in turn stroked him.
Throughout his body, impulses activated throughout. Soon, his penis experienced an erection.
Aroused, he turned to the woman, and his penis soon met up with her vagina.
He now had her where he wanted her, and engaged in sex with her. Since there was no window in the room, she did not know that the day had already fallen into the night. As she fell asleep with the warden, she thought of how violated she had been, and yet, there was little that could be done.
In the world outside the prison, the man continued to break the rocks
Alongside the rest of the family, they dedicated themselves to that single task
The punishment for not doing so was not a punishment that any of them wanted to have.
Because of this, they concentrated on their task.

Seven hours passed
A siren soon rang
It called all those who were working to eat lunch
The family, ravenously hungry, left their tasks to eat the meal given
The meal was a disappointing one: a bowl of rice and cabbage
Which they all had to share
While energy was provided by the bowl, they were still ravenously hungry
And yet, they knew they could not dare complain

Soon, the mealtime came to an end, and all those who had gathered to eat
Had to return to the job they had done since the morning
It was a job that none of those gathered there wanted to do
But do it they must

They continued to work on breaking the rocks, and the afternoon gradually gave way to the night.
Finally, a third siren sounded in the air
Their second shift had come to an end

All those gathered outside had to march in unison
No one could match faster or slower than another
For their movements were timed with quick precision
Everyone marched

Returning to the inside of the building, a gray and soulless edifice
They were all told to strip and to shower
While everyone in the group was drenched in sweat, the showering process
That they engaged in at the building led to a loss of dignity amongst them

They showered, and as they showered, in frigid water, the guard told them “Hurry up, maggots! There's no room for layabouts in service of the Dear Leader!”

They were once more shamed, but they could do little more than dream and hope that a better future would come.

With the showers done, they dressed themselves in the jumpsuits that were their required attire
The family returned to their cell, but noticed that one of their own was missing.
Their son, which the mother had sacrificed herself for earlier, was nowhere to be found.
An unsettling thought soon entered into them: the mother and her son had perished.

Since they had little knowledge of what happened, they had to push back their thoughts and head off to sleep. Supper was not provided.

The very next morning, a warden approached them holding hands with a pale, thin woman.
The son's mother had been found.

At the time, the family was blissfully sleeping
They were awakened by the guard, however
And soon saw their wife, daughter, and mother there
They rejoiced at her return

Their joy soon turned into disappointment, however, when they realized that the son had still not come back.

There was no time to dwell on his disappearance, for another day of work was what they had to face.

That day of work was long and tedious
But did eventually come to an end
As they returned to their room
They found their son still missing

By this point, they settled on the grim realization that he had most likely died
Unbeknownst to them, he had indeed died of exhaustion

A worker at the prison found the boy, sitting on the soil
And as was the policy at the prison, informed the warden
The warden thought that the boy had been wasting time
At the prison, time was a carefully rationed resource
It could not be wasted; it could only be carefully spent

Therefore, he tasked the boy to run errands
To take documents and supplies from one end of the prison to another
He had to do this, repeatedly for several hours
In the weather, his lithe body could not long endure the task he was given
After returning from the last errand he had been tasked, he finally passed away

The warden found the body
But did not want anyone to find out about what happened.
Therefore, he took the body and put it in a nondescript box
He buried it under a layer of topsoil
In a secluded part of the prison
Where it would be hard to find

And so, the mother of the child, without her precious loved one
Met a loss greater than the loss of her sexual purity and innocence
She had the loss of her own kith and kin
And that loss was greater than any loss that she could have earlier had

She continued to live for five years, but ultimately, her heart had given out long before her body had.
She died at the age of 31
Though officially she died of a respiratory infection
Her family thought that she had died of a broken heart.

The man grew angry at the prison for causing the deaths of his son and wife
And at the world for not doing anything to put a stop to the acts committed
He lost any hope that the world would ever come to his rescue
He decided to become cold and unfeeling
To divorce himself of his emotions
And to become a mindless automaton, dedicated purely to breaking the rocks they were tasked to break.

He would act in this way for another twenty years
One day, he stepped outside to fulfill the same task he had done since the time he could walk
Midway through it, he suffered a heart attack
He quickly fell to the ground and died
His body was, much like the child, put in a nondescript box and buried
To the prison, he was little more than a number
To his society, he was little more than a criminal

And yet, in dying, he gave himself the greatest triumph he could give himself over the chains of prison.
He was finally free from those chains
And he could now reunite himself with those loved ones whom he had lost
There, he could become a free man
And give himself the opportunity that he never had in his life
An opportunity he had always wanted to have
But never obtained