I shall not die
A thousand deaths of compromise
Giving up names in exchange
For food or a blanket.
I will bite my own arm
To smother my screams
And rob you of satisfaction
When you disassemble me.

I shall not die
Shamefully, my chin to my chest
Kneeling before the humiliating hole
I dug for myself
Waiting upon the pistol shot.
I will always refuse the blindfold.

I shall not die
Abandoned and alone
Obliterated from the memories
Of those I love,
My fate never questioned.
Someone will always stand in the rain
Outside your office window,
My name on a cardboard sign.

No matter how many times you cut my throat
Or hang me from my own bedsheet
Or bludgeon me with your nightstick
Of fire your bullets into my brain,
Whether you encircle me in a South African Bantustan
Or a Coca-Cola factory in Bolivia,
An alley behind the stonewall
Or a prison in the heart of it all,
I shall not die.

A million times-
I shall not die.

You will only get my corpse.

–Sean Swain