Refrigerator Women

Art by Yuecheng Wu

When the time comes, the man will enter his mind and open the door to his inspiration 

Inside, he finds the walls lined with containers of chilled imagination 

Their contents are stuffed with the formless figures of women  

their beings merely more than a shadow spilling onto the ground 

One by one, the women are plucked from their icy oasis and placed inside the world 

Their shadows turn into flesh, their bodies become a cage for a heart, yet they breathe no life 

Their pretty brows adorned with the crown of their suffering  

which they do not feel 

The man let the cold caress his face  

its gentle nipping a reminder of his joy  

The lined walls a picture of power 

Yet, when he opened this container  

a pair of large, dark eyes stared back at him 

Circled inside her cold confines  

her reddened skin folded over itself. 

Her knees were pressed to her breasts  

and her head — circled with a mane of dark curls  

rested on her arms 

The woman did not speak  

Instead, she only watched the man  

her tilted head regarding him with quiet curiosity  

The rise and fall of her chest a wordless taunt 

And when the man did nothing 

did not take her  

would not place her inside the world 

the woman smiled 

reached her hand out 

and closed the door