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José Sanchez’s First Week in the Cell

Stefi Weisburd

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A Spanish art historian has found evidence that suggests some Civil War jail cells were built like 3-D modern art paintings in order to torture prisoners. —BBC, January 27, 2003

Tilt the cot to make me spill,
mortar the floor with rubble. You can
box me in this narrow panic, but I
won’t talk, you decadent, you Bolshevik—
even with your tetchy lights that swerve
and warp the walls. My head’s off kilter
as a battered boat. But Christ’s
my compass, do you hear? This
is what comes of an empty throne,
of peasant rule, of anarchy:
these soulless spheres, walls of mad
lines askew, colors flashed like smut.