The Lovely Stranger Poem by Allison Barnett

I want this oppresion to end.
I want to bend and break these invisible bars
that have webbed around me until i forget the bars,
forget the cage.
Time and time again
a beautiful stranger will beckon to me,
promising utter bliss.
I hurtle toward his open arms,
only to crash into the bars, my body crumpling in the dirt.
I watch the stranger's face furrow into a mask of disappointment.
Time and time again I watch,
hope blossoming my soul,
as his face cracks open in a smile.
But I never seem to notice how their eyes unfocus on me,
or the extra shadow that has joined his.
I stretch my hand through the bars,
my fingers pleading for his love and warmth.
Instead he turns,
and takes the hand of another girl,
a beautiful girl,
a free girl.
I fall back into the dirt,
and wait for the next compelling stranger to break my heart