dead weight

The women wander chained here.  In no queue
but loosely shackled they all whirl in drifts
of thwarted rage that's punctuated through
with laughter, love and dreams:  quick sudden shifts.
Their chains, not brought to them by men as "gifts",
all men here wear them too, will never rust,
yet still one day all women now so trussed
(and all the men) will slip away, fly free:
escapees catching up on wanderlust,
unfettered by our bonds of gravity.

Dead Weight appeared until October 1996 on Poetic Express, the legendary and now defunct website associated with The Sacramento News.