The Deep Away

“In Sweden hundreds of migrant children, facing the possibility of deportation, have been diagnosed since the 1990s with what is known locally as resignation syndrome. Some remain inert for years.” (The Economist, Oct 24, 2018)

“This [Resignation syndrome] is a disorder that causes an impenetrable comatose state, but where there is no disease to explain it…. Until very recently, people with this syndrome came exclusively from families seeking asylum in Sweden.”
(The Guardian, April 12, 2021)

Hypnos, too, traveled in a state
of nether, the waters of Lethe lapping
at his feet as he nestled between Dreaming
and Death, hidden from creeping daylight 
by a sweet oblivion, a magical suspension
between worlds. A deep away.
His statue once stood in a hall of Gods.
We saw him there: mute, marble, winged,
nearly alive, a sentry in the old city where
buildings crumbled under the weight of bombs,
all turned to dust or tarred with the ash
of a thousand fires. Or perhaps, all saved:
swaddled like babes, or like mummies
in white linens, cradled in wooden crates,
awaiting transit to another state.