The Metal Silence

Author’s note:  The dominance of Salvadoran gangs and efforts to end them have left loved ones of the imprisoned helpless, where many are first held in a little jail on the streets of San Salvador, El Penalito, which has been referred to as ground zero for perhaps the most aggressive police repression in Central American history. I have seen it. Here is my poem recollecting my introduction to both the conditions of El Salvador’s prisons and the actions of its detainees.