Alana Hayes
A Better World
I can find a better place for myself
than just to be captured
as an object for your viewing.
trophy in the case
What an intolerable allegory for womanhood!
Growing up, they told me, I could be anything,
including free,
including safe,
including the future.
Well, here’s the future’s face!
Muzzle firmly in place.
Free. Safe. What a monstrous fable.
The truth is disheartening
when it lays all its cards down on the table.
The world is waiting
to wreak havoc on you
if you believe all its bedtime stories.
The ones that give you sweet dreams,
but never touch on historical facts,
or ugly realities.
But the world is also still full of palpable wonders
for those of us who brave it’s perils
and find error in its ideas.
Alana Hayes is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she received a BA in English Literature and another in Women and Gender Studies. Most of her poetry revolves around themes of Judaism, feminism, and social justice issues. Her work has appeared in Night Music Journal. Follow her on Instagram @womanasriot.
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