‘Hostile Environment’ by Moses Musonda

Trapped. The feeling that a bird gets, being locked in a cage, a constant bang bang bang on
the other side of the door, knowing that there is no escape. We’re all alone in this together
but am I the only here? Knowing anything or anyone could attack at any moment, is it my
own people I fear? I’ve been stuck for too long, like a pair of shoes in cement, do I belong in
this place? An outkast, lost in a new world, I’m being told I don’t belong in this place, like an
animal being preyed on in the outback, the feeling of being claustrophobic whilst being in the
biggest space possible but the feeling is colossal. It towers over me like a skyscraper to a
car down below on the road, it’s like the walls are closing in and I have nowhere else left to
go but this is the same place that everyone said I can call it my home. This is exactly what
survival is, but it feels extreme, I try to run but can’t move, it sounds like a whisper when I try
to scream. We’re all alone in this together but am I the only here? All the people I could trust,
they’ve all disappeared, on the run, like a prison escape but I’m still behind, I’m a hostage of
my mind, I’ve fallen victim to my own heart, and everyday it feels like this city is slowly falling
apart. This dystopian reality we live in, but it’s not by choice, I have no voice, I try to shout
but in this place, people like us are unable to make noise, stripped of our abilities, they say
it’s a ‘perfect’ world but it is not what it seems, in the hardest times I hope and pray that I
wake up from this hellish dream. We’re all alone in this together but am I the only here?
Maybe one day it will end and I will just disappear.