Prisoners of Disfavor (New Poem)

Prisoners of Disfavor
by Tim Kavi

oh the sadness
of solemn goings
across time's
membranes

there is only
the uncovering
of eternal shames

as you seek
the nine billion
manifestations
of God's names

to heal your suffering souls?

to wander among
the lost poets
and shipwrecked fools

in the sea of words
across the history
of many flags
unfurled?

who is
your master's name?

what disgrace
do his words bring?

what prisoners are
new?

never oppressed before
their sufferings
not few

those borne of disfavor
in the government's
view?

march with a
certainty in chains

until at last
their chains
are cast
aside in freedom's
volley

until the madman's
dance and
the madman's folly?

their certain vision
brings a hope
that all will be free

when at last
history enables the
rest to see

the truths of
their suffering's song?

the sadness
of their family's wrong!

and at last
those that still live
emerge

with a message
they bring
of the wrongs and woe
that placed them there

to the sunlight of that day
shielding their eyes
from the sudden light

emerging from
a dark theater of pain?

to the countryside
they go
the square
the mountains
the flowing hills
and valleys

painted in their blood
flooded by their tears?

until all is soothed
made whole
and right again

the messages
of the prisoners
of disfavor

sound from the gallows
and torture rooms
that bring wrongful confessions

ring from the shallows
inditing their masked
torturer's obsessions

until bleeding
in their faces
they have been dehumanized
and not seen?

the prisoners of disfavor
blacken the credibility
of oppressors everywhere

until the injustice
has consciousness raised
many outraged
plainly speaking

then the prisoners
of disfavor
are released in an outrage
of social discomfort

signifying the last days

of those who misused
their power
and abused
their fellows

heating implements
of harm
in the fire

of revolutions past
and those failed

dissenters jailed
who were later
found to be in the right?

Oh, prisoners of disfavor
may your truths
always come to the light!

Poet's Afterword: Another Tim Kavi poem against injustice everywhere.