Jennifer L. Freed

CELLS

So this is how it is, then—
like an origami box, fold-by-fold 
unfolding.

Each time I understand at last 
your hidden sides, another
face appears.

The box has inner walls—cells
full of sleeping claws.

Their names 
wake them. 

No wonder you bite

your tongue.

Jennifer L Freed lives in Massachusetts. Recent work appears/is forthcoming in journals including Atlanta Review, Atticus Review, Rust + Moth, The Worcester Review, and Zone 3, as well as in various anthologies, and in her chapbook, These Hands Still Holding (finalist for the 2013 New Women's Voices prize). A five-time pushcart nominee, she has been a finalist or winner of various awards, most recently the 2020 Samuel Washington Allen Prize. She has recently completed a full-length manuscript. Please visit jfreed.weebly.com