Modern Day Slaves

the plan


A woman gazes out of an upstairs window:
To escape or stay?
Risk everything or have a bed?

Dream to the skyline, tower blocks to hide among,
Ugly corners of this city will swallow her,
People march eyes down, thumbs twitch on phones:
no one will see her.

Another girl will fill her shoes, her saggy dent in the mattress,
Will do their bidding, will be beaten for her benefit,
To learn respect, to learn to comply:
no one will miss her.

Point the camera.
Hurriedly she steps back into dank darkness,
The tattered curtain flaps uncertainly
As an arm, thickset, reaches forward:
pulls the glass firmly shut.