In the sandwich laden air
stem cells weave cages
locking dirty diapered babies
in with lions, the very lions
parents crashed through
raging deserts to avoid.

Left unshackled,
bra straps tether
tender flesh to
steaming irons
make-up trays
and pointy-toed
stilettos that
stab – stab –stab
at gutted corners
of self-worth as
we smile-lie through
the glass shards
we supposedly
shattered.

Life isn’t precious,
subjugation is paramount;
even the bees get it, don’t you see?
Bent to the will of the flower
they too labor themselves to death
so the bear can come
and steal it all, while the flower
propagates the cycle.

Jailed and monitored
due process dissolves
with every lethal injection.
Babies wail and the women
remember it all started
when the banks
terminated our accounts…

Image courtesy of Pinterest

Tamara Fricke is the 2010 co-winner of the Gertrude Claytor Award of the Academy of American Poets and is previously published by The Lyon Review, Meat for Tea, Attack Bear Press Poetry Vending Machine, Whisper and the Roar, We Will Not Be Silenced, and has been included in a number of compilations.  Her poetry chapbook Our Requiem was released in 2014.  She lives in Springfield, MA, with an ungrateful cat, where she writes grants professionally.