Freedom

A giant wall of rock and an iron gate protected the house. Protection that is what they said it was for. To protect us from the West. The West who would want to break through and destroy our freedom. Freedom! A word I once knew, No Longer! A word that is shunned in this world, a word that gives us false promise, a word thrown at us like bird feed to the chickens. And like chickens we do not think about what it really is.

They keep us in here as if we were prisoners. The blank, depressed expressions on our face our uniform. The guards patrol, waiting. Waiting for one foolish enough to try and break through to freedom, to the West. They are traitors, young boys who wish to throw away their pride in the fatherland. They so quickly adopt the communist propaganda that spew from great towers of gloom. They not only turn against country, but friend, family and neighbour. They would shoot those who only seek freedom. The freedom they promised us. The freedom that we would gain in this so called utopia for the people.

Oh the irony they call this for the people by the people. Yet the people do not want this. The people want the freedom that they took for granted before. The freedom that allowed them to do what they pleased. Not in this place. No free thoughts, no free actions nothing is free. What I would give to be free again. To be able to think for ones self, to say what wants without fear of persecution.

Why do they do this? Do the guards not want their freedom? They could come with us! They could escape with us. We could break free of this prison into the West. Instead they stay in their towers watching like hawks ready to swoop down on their unfortunate prey killing them. We are their prey and they are always hungry and waiting for their next meal.

Those outside the walls. Ha they claim to help us. I can hear them, they carry on with their lives oblivious of what it is like to have no freedom. They take it for granted as if it were some insignificant gift that can be thrown away. I despise them for it. They who do not cherish the precious gift of freedom are rewarded with it. While I wait here knowing the true value of it, have had it ripped from me. Stolen and for what, because I lived a few blocks down from another. Because I was unfortunate enough to be on this side of Berlin. No reason! NO FREEDOM!

I will never be free. These walls will never go down so tomorrow I will try and escape, an attempt I will not succeed in.

I look up on my final day and see the eagles of freedom. How they soar above us, majestic birds they are. No boundaries, no walls, nothing to stop them, the true meaning of freedom .Oh how I wish to sour with the eagles once again like I did before. However I will not sour with them again for my wings are clipped forever.


                       - Heindler Schmidt