Pink Triangles Poem by David Saltaire

What if
you had lived through
tortures unimaginable
humiliations that debased your very soul
hunger, nakedness, starvation
a living death
a dying life for years?

What if this happened to you
merely
because of how you loved?

What if this happened to you
and then one day you were freed.

You went home to your family
or, what was left of your family
and they said to you, We don’t want to know
what happened. That’s the past
it’s all over now
and anyway,
maybe you deserved it
in some way.

Take a moment…

Imagine growing old
with this hidden in your belly
tearing at your vitals for so many years
and one day a young man comes along who says,
Tell me what happened. I want to know.

But, by now you just can’t
just can’t...
the words won’t come
even if the memories do
and while your mind plays all those
horrors back to you
the stab of shame still bleeds
and all you can do is hide your face
behind your withered, mottled hand
so his camera won’t see
your wasted tears.