Barren (of) Beauty

Stripped and gnarled

Flowering curtailed in knobby protuberances

Starkly hueless

Pointing prickly skyward

Against colorless January haze
Compels the lens

Evocative

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Body Betrayed

Reconnecting
Purposefully and painfully
With children
Pleasant past-times
Life remembered

She orchestrates
Family outing
Basketball game at alma mater
In her absence instituted
Enhanced security procedures

The raised wand
Guard held
Triggers automatic response
Bred in daily repetition
She turns deftly subservient

Back to officer
Arms T-d, feet splayed
Senses quarter mast
Protecting self
From the intimate violation

No gloved hands
Slide across her body here
Perfunctory wand wave
Completed, bored
By security
Assessing her unthreatening
A middle-class mom
Not convicted felon

Senses awaken
Flash momentary fear
She gave herself away
In conditioned
Pat-down display

Free to cheer
With revived enthusiasm
Yet invisibly chained
By trauma
Cellularly hidden