In the Zoo
Poetry
We silence them with glass,
display them like statues and hang their lives
like paintings in a museum, a prison
for the truly innocent—we value our amusement
over their freedom, their happiness, their life.
We take the lioness from her home and keep
her where we want her, and she forgets
herself so she paws at her blurred reflection
over and over as if she can somehow escape,
as if she can one more time be able to feel herself.
Margaret Marcum lives in Delray Beach with her three cats, Angel Clare, Alice, and Adam. She recently graduated from the MFA program in creative writing at Florida Atlantic University. Her poems have appeared in Amethyst Review, NonBinary Review, Scapegoat Review, October Hill Magazine, Writing in a Woman’s Voice, and Children, Churches, and Daddies, among others. She was a finalist for the 2021 Rash Award in Poetry sponsored by Broad River Review.