The Orange Trees

Twenty-One Steps.

As we lay in our beds,
Ready to hear.
Laying there together,
Covered with fear.
A knock on the door,
It opens.
He's there.
He tells us to come,
To the cellar down there.
We get dressed very quickly,
No time for real packing.
We don on those corsets,
Comfort is lacking.
Down we go, 
Down we are led.
Twenty-one steps to that little, tight room.
Twenty-one steps to freedom,
From supposed doom.

They tell us to wait,
Bringing chairs in.
We're tired and sleepy,
Why have all these men come in?
They lie to us,
"It is for your safety."
He unfolds a piece of paper,
He tells us the truth.
Of why we are here.
He tells us the true reason,
We all stare blankly in fear.
They pull them out,
A lie, what a lie!
This is not like a portrait!
They stand at the ready,
He aims and shouts fire!
All shot together,
One by one.
All of us falling,
Into the unknown beyond.
It's cloudy and black,
The window is barred.  
I hear the cacophony of screams,
I wish it were a horrible dream!
They all fall around me,
Sprayed with the blood!
I crumple like a rag-doll,
Fallen with a thud.
Down twenty-one steps,
To the great beyond.
Down twenty-one steps,
To our condemned bond.