Lockdown Lockdown Lockdown
They speak of the lives of children as if they’re guaranteed
I think of babies born with crosshair birthmarks,
cherubs suckling at the mouth of a gun (formula is so hard to find these days)
being alive is enough of a fight
I speak of kevlar textbooks,
parents who learned to scrub blood from school uniforms,
thoughts and prayers
They think of mothers as expendable,
a mere body,
a husk bisected by birth,
a skin that can be shed
(I think of the morticians, the profit)
Mollie McMullan is a sophomore at SUNY Geneseo. In her work, she explores themes of patriarchal control, the role of womanhood, and the concept of permanence.