"Gilded Cages"
By Lani Hankins
A child's bug box
left on the steps of this house
in a well-to-do neighborhood
has me wondering about
the tiny creature trapped inside.
It probably doesn't realize
the view from that stone cliff
is what so many strive towards;
kill themselves a little more each day for.
Beyond those chiseled steps
a lonely housewife sips on her glass
of wine and looks down
from her casement window.
She's convinced herself
she's better than people like me
who can only stroll along streets
we can't afford to live on,
but from down here,
she isn't much different, to me,
than the little caged creature
abandoned on her steps.
Once upon a time I wished
to have a seat at a similar table,
along with a window to gaze out from
the stone structure I would keep
locked behind more walls.
I wanted the white-picket-fence dream, too,
but that was before I found the forest.
I would rather be free to wander
than lost within that gilded cage.
Lani Hankins is a former Army female engagement team member and a veteran of Afghanistan. Follow her here. Listen to the Savage Wonder episode with her here.
She blogs and podcasts at Kruse Corner.
Bunny: Poems About Surviving Military Life by Lani Hankins
Bottled Away: Confessions of a Struggling Veteran by Lani Hankins
The Gaslit Heart: A Story of Service and Survival by Lani Hankins
Eased Pain: Poems About Surviving Domestic Violence by Lani Hankins
What’s happening at VetRep…
Catch our interview this week with Elliot Ackerman on the Savage Wonder Podcast here.
Tickets are going fast for the Parlor this season, reserve your seats for Woody Allen’s Central Park West here before they sell out! For the month of June we will be opening Central Park West with the winner of our inaugural 10-minute play competition, Fifteen Dead Souls, by Leilani Squire.
We are currently offering multiple dates for our online and in-person Playwriting for Veterans classes, and our Acting for Beginners class is now being offered weekly every Saturday from 10am-12pm. Scholarships for qualifying veterans, as well as multi-class passes are available. Registration details can be found here.