36.
A woman was choked by a metal shackle
in the holding cell
at the Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix America.
She tried to force it off her body backwards.
But the stick didn’t feel so it had no will to cooperate.
It got stuck against her neck.
She probably tasted salt on her lips
and on her cheeks
beside check-in when she panicked.
A child-like cry
led to playing tiger with forked paw and drag
across the airport floor.
Pulses like knocks took over her throat
and her protest I’m just a mother,
made her a terrorist.
Another woman who died
and came back to life said, Like here
it all depends on your attitude, on the other side.
Plume: Issue #11 May 2012