Thrown casually aside into a pile,
indifferently stacked and pressed up against strangers,
like a body count of war victims
dumped all into an unmarked grave.

Discarded as soiled, impure,
bacterial shame colors their faces
in the wake of their hygienic rape.

Forcefully tortured with third-degree aquatic burns
only to have bristle-and-wire pads scraped across them,
their skin rubbed raw for faultless blemishes,
uncommitted crimes -
innocents punished for the flaws of their masters.

Parts of themselves carved away,
or smoothed over,
the psychologist of the sink
replacing them all into carbon-copy rows,
identical, cleansed faces normal once more.

01/26/2004

Author's Note: Topic provided by my sister, Katrina Cobb. Ha! Bet she thought this would turn out funny! ;) Published in my college's literary magazine, Pulse.

Posted on 01/27/2004
Copyright © 2025 Amanda J Cobb