You can’t give anything away

You can’t give anything away
that you don’t choose to
so people can’t take anything
from you, but you can let it go
press it into their palm
and say here, have it.
I don’t know what I would have done
If I had been kept here. Perhaps this.

Some of the windows were blocked
large corridors ended abruptly,
there were marks in the sandstone
it looked like people had tried to claw
their way out, rested their head
into the wall and dissolved.

There was a way out, a door
I couldn’t understand why
they didn’t go through it.
It gave me an idea of hope
so I sat staring at it, imagined
what happened inside happening outside
and saw why they never left.