Control
the inflexible beat of blue and red lights, of white background, of perfect squares, of right justification, of being recorded, of being on camera, of being on a roster, of having a prison number, of walking on a grid, of shopping for cereal, of dating from a screen, of being in a security line, of speaking to a trained professional, of blood-based obligation, of shirts tailored with gender, of playgrounds made of guardrails, awake at unknown hour I think of your wheezing, of your cracked, swollen feet, of working on demand, of same the inflexible rhythm, the rhythm, that is not pulse.
Laura Salts is the author of the chapbook Why I Stole It (Impunity Press). She co-runs the reading series Metaphor Party in Olympia, WA.
