Apocryphal Idols

by Cheryl Vail, with image above by Martin Gollan

Liberty’s a goddess
yet how can she embody her name
when she isn’t permitted to be    as she is
when her own choices are sand through a    sieve held
in someone else’s hands

she isn’t an automaton    that prefix doesn’t work
she’s more marionette    bound by politicians’ strings
or paper doll    her dimensions compressed

libertas the origins of    means ‘belonging to the people’
         and this in turn means ‘free’
but what is freedom at the cost of her body
but what is freedom at the exhaustion of her will

how can she be free    when she belongs to ‘the people’
when she doesn’t belong to herself?