Write a poem or short story about a character that is trapped physically AND metaphorically (the poem should, therefore, be a metaphor itself)
Example:
Locker # 275
If you tilt your head to the right about half an inch
and focus in on the freckle at the tip of your nose,
the flickering light from the hallway makes shadows.
Shadow. No shadow. Shadow. No shadow.
If you make a sound someone will hear you -
That teacher in the lab or the librarian or the custodian -
someone is always there to hear you
but never to listen to you.
So you stand as quietly as you can, your ankle
wrapped against your calf your wrist
bent behind your back your shoulders
pressed against that mirror your mom bought you from Target.
You know they will find your eventually because someone will
notice you aren't there in Algebra, and someone will snicker
until someone calls the office and someone
bustles through papers to find the locker combination because you certainly won't tell them.
You imagine wanting to make a sound.
You imagine wanting to be found,
wanting to be asked if you are OK,
wanting to be given a bag of ice for a black eye. . .
You think for a moment -
what if you had never worn that shirt to school or what if
you had never cut your hair that way or what if
you had never sat at that lunch table or what if...
what if you had never decided
that Happiness was worth it?
What if...
what if you had never been born?
