Photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh on Unsplash

if I were to tell you
you wouldn’t believe me
you’d say that my story
sounded more like a work
of dystopian fiction
than a modern-day reality

you’d say I’m exaggerating
that it couldn’t happen
in a country like ours

if I were to tell you
you wouldn’t believe me
you’d say that I’d simply gone mad