boxed in
our gender’s plight, scurrying
tadpole shapes
of creation’s fight
boxed in
by our skin’s tint
even before
cooing a greeting
boxed in
our weight classes,
from scales
on birth certificates
boxed in
our life’s stream
raked raw
swimming upstream
boxing out
from feeling doubt
in all that surrounds:
for those stifling sides
never square up
under spotlight
© L. B. Mek
January 2020