detention centre - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

There is something about unmeasurable time that is a torture to mind, body and soul. It stretches you thin somehow, so unbearably thin. Perhaps it's because there is no love there, no hugs or kind smiles, no-one to tell you everything will be okay. And then there are the eyes of everyone here, alive and dead, as if they are so desperate for this nightmare to be over they try to sleep even when they are awake. They feel the need to take our freedom, that much is obvious. They are scared of us, yet it's more than that. I see disgust in the way their faces move, indifference in the little they say, grimly seeing out their time as guards before they may leave. At what cost to their souls too? To think you can wound another without the wound being on yourself too is foolishness of the worst sort. This life is but a magic mirror, giving back what you give out. And so I sit here, on this plastic chair, and let my eyes rest a while.

I ask my imagination for a bird so that she may sing and move her wings in the sunlight that warms her. I hear her song, so bright, as if it were all the colours I've been missing for so long. Before I can help it a small laugh escapes my lips; I see my mamma who would stop in the middle of any path to savour such music, no matter how humble the bird.

Take a look at this monster you cage, for she is fearsome. Take a look at the anger and rage, the eyes that want to take those arms of yours, the ones with the medicated needles and put them through a wood chipper... yeah, you heard right.

Take a look at this monster, for she is in torment. Take a look at the pain of loneliness and rejection, the eyes that want to take those arms of yours and make them a protective shield against fear itself... yeah, you heard right.

Take a look at this child hiding inside a monster, feeling the separation between its scales and soft skin, for all you see is a suit of armour. Take a look at the slowness in my eyes that gives away the uncried tears, the ones I swear will never fall and if you come any closer I will run... yeah, you heard right.

Take a look at this child who's so broken the scales shatter, for everything I am is pain. Take a look at the tears I plead to keep inside for the indignity of letting you see... yeah, you see all right.

Taking my humanity removes yours also. Reduce me to being a monster and you are one too. Say I have no rights and you have none, not in nature, for she holds a different balance away from the rules of man. Anytime you want to reverse all that, be worthy of love and respect, of fraternity and trust... I'll be right here, holding your key and mine.

In here we must do the insane thing to be treated as sane. We must act as if we can cope with being caged, fed on a schedule as farmyard pigs, and spoken to without the slightest trace of love. Humans need love every bit as much as they need sunshine and freedom... without them we all start to go a little mad. Yet we must keep that inside, behave as if we were on some picnic in the park and these guards were our trusted friends... today... tomorrow... and every day after until who knows when? And half the people in here were living on paper floors already, one small rain shower away from tumbling into the abyss. We're human too, okay? Just talk to us as if you are our loving brother or sister and we'll turn a new page together.