Dedicated to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and all the victims of the Gulag, past and present

By Douglas J. Lanzo
Copyright 2024

First published in WestWard Quarterly (Spring 2024 Issue)

From the Gulag Archipelago
we’re voices from cold stone —
crying out in truth the stories
that the State sought to disown.

From depths of rock-strewn quarries
hewn and dragged by lines of men,
decrying unjust systems
whose ideologies did rend:
human dignity and liberties
they perished to defend…
now frozen into landscape,
their forced labor, to what end?

With lies, seeking to silence
suffering in our walls,
the State cited equality
from heights of lavish halls,
until toppling their hypocrisy
the Berlin Wall did fall,
for a time bringing freedom
that we hoped to share with all.

The lands of our Gulag
have felt a new chill in the air,
as prisoners return
to stifle freedom in our lair. Yet the truth of our voices
will not be silenced by mere man,
as we echo through the ages
timeless in our reach and span.