Conditions of Pleasure
- for Megan Williams
by Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Because you fed her rat & dog shit & stabbed her blackbird leg Because how many of you forced yourselves inside Because you fed her rat & dog shit & dreamed of tortures no one inflicted upon you even if you begged or paid Because everyone is paying one way or another in the coal mines & on the Capitol's nipple & between the illegal borders the idea hidden like a sore in the green mouth of mountains Because of the cable cord belted around her throat Because of the toilet water she was made to drink Because this is America & love is the gnaw of star-stricken rats Because the noose has been pulled up & out of the body's damp pit Because this is a prodigal nation & anybody can come & return his shame for morals & create the torture of his own dream