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.
