MARY’s CABINET


The lens captured open eyes, barely

above flesh sunk to bone

and dignity denied

between legs

spread wide

up to a breast, sagging

beside the equally vacant babe

nestled under Mama Anti’s arm.


Traded from the market’s local beginnings

to global ends in orangutan’s disposal,

palm oil would be among the first despicables

to go from Mary’s cabinet,

where Mama Anti’s pain is pinned.

Mary’s intimacy with abandon made obvious

by her own hip bones, protruding,

and her name signed

to every petition tweeted

between browsing home improvement sites.

This

is a third kitchen remodel.

This

is something

that gives Mary

something

more

to think about

than what she should

and should not eat

because a picture adds pounds

complicated by what’s happening

to those who don’t build walls that cage

themselves and their trophies.


Mary does not hide the hurt

oozing from a mind that might as well be owned

by the husband who feels trapped

with her

in this house

so she replaces old cabinets twice painted over

and practices a smile

she will wear

when dinner guests

compliment the facelift

and disregard her distraction,

too real


Note: MARY (2016/2018) is part inspired by a photo of Mama Anti and Babe Anti in ‘Orangutans face complete extinction within 10 years…’, Independent August 19, 2016. Palm oil is considered among the earliest traded commodities. Please read Dame Emma Thompson’s note and watch the short film Rang-tan that she narrated for Greenpeace. More on harms associated with the palm oil trade via Orangutan Foundation International and what’s being done to help orangutans via Orangutan Outreach.

Megan Hollingsworth

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