Resident

Predator and prey

The wolf grinds its steel teeth

In a false twilight, the night came so long ago

When children were domesticated and caged in white rooms

A helpless herd to wringing hands

His back dented with high-heels

Cleaved into the meat of his shoulders

Breast-fed toxic waste, the umbilical noose

Born into death, neglected battered and wasting away

Fight or flight is only in open air

Fright and flight on the inside

So many hands eager to hold you down

often until your breathing will cease

Your cries heard by deaf ears - just as the walls of concrete

Profit maker. Human livestock. Misery harvest

Bow to our monetary god, Child servant

Broken beaten and scarred

You sleep under the watchful eye of strangers

Profit off of your tiny back. Paying the bills of philanthropists

Your wretched reality

There is no one in whom you believe

Your god is your own

Now I will tuck you into sleep