Rise Up Review
detained
fists as privilege, fight or flight the instinct
you hardly heard the clicking, insisting
you don’t have to
do this but
click! your arm twisted—you give up
a purse, twenty-eight dollars
your shoes, suicidal, stab spindled
you pee in a cup
a little on your pants
slough to the cell in thin
sponge slippers, toes with smiley faces
someone is banging on glass, someone is waving
things will happen
you have no control over
—Kathleen Hellen
Kathleen Hellen is the author of The Only Country was the Color of My Skin (2018), the award-winning collection Umberto’s Night, and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento. Nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net, and featured on Poetry Daily, her poems have won the Washington Writers' Publishing House prize, the Thomas Merton poetry prize and prizes from the H.O.W. Journal and Washington Square Review. She has been awarded grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts. For more on Kathleen visit https://www.kathleenhellen.com/.
