Caged

Poetry

“Inside” acrylic on paper by Harper Hazelmare

Astir cities tuck me in,
concrete slats for my crib.
Metal bends to me
telling me it’s safest to follow
the white man
across the street.
I stop, self-imposed red light.
I’m wary, yellow warning
as the cabs know, sweeping by.
Lorries blast
salt on me, lapping water
to my clothes and
barricading me from the people-crowd
making me other in my
soiled nature.
Green is the color of my true love’s hair,
sprouting from ground
parked between…