Poisoned | Teen Ink

Poisoned

April 16, 2010
By Kandabear SILVER, East Bend, North Carolina
Kandabear SILVER, East Bend, North Carolina
7 articles 0 photos 93 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I went insane from long intervals of sanity." - Edgar Allan Poe
"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say but what we are unable to say." - Unknown
"You must say drunk on writing so that reality can not destory you." - Ray Bradbury


Liberation they said as they walked through the aftermath, the evidence of our dual existence, our obvious conflict. It was difficult to witness their tender faces painted noble and uniforms of immortal heroism. They gathered some and set others aside and called us liberated.

And how am I liberated? While darkness still haunts my mind’s eye. The air I breathe, the world as I see, and everything in it is tainted with humanity’s ignorance to our plight, our suffering. They took us up in the masses, outwardly gregarious yet still coarse. We tromped through our dead, fallen kin and neighbor. And as we moved, I tried to rectify the last decade of my existence.

I closed my eyes against the outside watched the nightmares unfold. I remembered all I had seen. The distorted images of children face down in streets, of bodies broken and battered, of the smell and taste of flesh in the wind. The SS screamed in my head that I was a demon, my blood was a blemish in the sight of my own country. My friends and family were pushed together in cramped complexes, begging for water, food, and mercy. I signed a card on a train for my family of forced reassurance.

Would it be difficult to breathe in society? I could be like so many others, dogmatic in disbelief, denying such scrupulous evidence for false satisfaction. I might stand in the crowds and portray the illusion of gross disgust and deep sympathies. I could pretend to forget. But in doing so, would I not be what the nations had acclaimed for years?

Would I not be a poison?

Would I not be a poison to my fallen, a poison to the truth and the very history of man? Would I not be the virus of plaguing ignorance? The very thing I despised in this world. I would only become the representation of the uniforms’ words.

I looked into the sky and saw the ash that shaded the sunlight. The warmth that once seemed so tenuous, now my spirit longed for dried and withered. And still they carried me as a shell of my prior identity and still they screamed that I was liberated. Tenacious soldiers pushed us to our freedom.

My freedom.

As I watched the last of us alive being filed in a most civil fashion, I was reminded that though I was alive, I had already died in this place. The rationalism I had once understood, my observations, the general familiarity I’d loved, now corrupted by the abundance of failing will-power. My training and discipline were now a decaying memory. Insignificant.

I was no longer who I had once been.

I was no longer who I once knew.

I was an empty vessel.

And for the first time in my years of imprisonment and slavery, in my time of fighting to survive, and justify; I felt weak and vulnerable. I felt as though I couldn’t survive, that I would fall and never open my eyes again.

I felt like a poison.


The author's comments:
This is a piece from the point of view of a German Jew after the end of the Holocaust

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This article has 114 comments.


on Jun. 29 2013 at 1:28 pm
oliviajocson SILVER, Normal, Illinois
6 articles 0 photos 34 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Learning to love the process."

Such a great book!

on May. 19 2013 at 6:52 pm
torilynn400 GOLD, Poughkeepsie, New York
10 articles 1 photo 41 comments

Favorite Quote:
"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."
-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Wow. Absolutely and breathtakingly incredible! Keep it up- I loved it!

on Nov. 16 2012 at 4:53 pm
WhiteAsSnow BRONZE, Redmond, Oregon
2 articles 1 photo 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11

wow, that was amazing. have you read "A Hiding Place" it is so good. i would also appriciate your feed back on my story. keep writing! 

on Sep. 26 2012 at 9:07 am
The-Amazing-Walrus BRONZE, Reykjavík, Other
1 article 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.

  A very good piece deserving of the highest praise.

on Jul. 19 2012 at 1:16 pm
FauxedTea BRONZE, Denver, Pennsylvania
2 articles 3 photos 32 comments

Favorite Quote:
'We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.' -Andre Berthiaume

Very, very, very well written! Loved it!

on Jun. 27 2012 at 1:45 pm
asdfasdf asdfasdf BRONZE, Adsfsadfasd, Illinois
1 article 0 photos 8 comments
Good story, and excellent original retaling.

free_bird21 said...
on Mar. 31 2012 at 8:36 am
free_bird21, Decatur, Illinois
0 articles 2 photos 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
What kills us makes us stronger.

i love your writing.

on Feb. 16 2012 at 9:51 am
BeyondMe BRONZE, Battle Creek, Michigan
3 articles 0 photos 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I used to want the words "She tried" on my tombstone. Now I want "She did it."
~Katherine Dunham

Wow. That made me think.

jordan d said...
on Feb. 1 2012 at 2:23 pm
This story was amazing, the climax was great I knew like I was there and saw it all. I loved your resolution also. In all, it was a great story.

Sydney Z said...
on Feb. 1 2012 at 8:47 am
I though your piece was really good! I thought your use of mood ws extremely good. Once I started I needed to keep reading!

Karalee B said...
on Feb. 1 2012 at 8:42 am
I loved your story! It had great visualization and I found myself drawn to the story! This story really helps you visualize in the eyes of another, what it's really like!

Bailey said...
on Feb. 1 2012 at 8:41 am
I can really visualize this story in my head. It is very discriptive and I can relate to it with things i have learned before.

Kaylah J said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 1:43 pm
I really liked the story. I thought that I was in the story. I really like how you wrote out the story. Great Job!

johnnyl98 said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 1:34 pm
johnnyl98, Waterford, Wisconsin
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
Great story. You really made me feel like I was actually there witnessing it and I am really inspired by this story. Incredible job.

Kevin O said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 1:34 pm
Excellent story! You had great word choice and very interesting metaphors. Once I started reading, I didn't want to stop!

Kaitlyn F. said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 1:32 pm
I though your story was very wonderful. I loved your word choice and how you didn't just say what time it was set in or what was happening.

Maranda D said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 1:31 pm
I think this story was outstanding. It had great vocabulary. I thought the detail and describing words were great. I could picture the image clearly in my mind!

Krissy F. said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 1:29 pm
This was a very moving story. It really helped me visualize what that would be like. I was really intrigued by the first paragraph.

Natalie L said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 1:25 pm
Great job on your story. You really hocked me in the begining and you did a FANTASTIC job on reaching out and getting inside my emotions. It was full of great details and really discriptive.

emilar said...
on Jan. 31 2012 at 12:06 pm
This story told me how the past was. I am imspired by I am poisoned. You did a amazing job keep it up.