Cardboard Afternoon

All ready and set for
your government-approved lifestyle?
Child released into the wild,
there’s danger on!
Beware of the tigers
who will shred you with their ivory claws,
and lick your gashes
as they feed on your syrup.

When it’s all over, stop crying.
Look to the skies for fire -
you’ll make it home, to one -
built of brick, not straw.
Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin
shall they break you in!
Brace yourself
against the winds,
stand yourself, a sturdy rock.

Don’t trample on the grass.
Walk with it.
Now you’re free from what
you were birthed to be
and we can make it out of here alive.

- Nadira Ilana, 2004

Relevant much.