Raven

Bad-mothered, doubly unfathered,
we too have known lack: it sits in our hearts
like a starving raven, holds us ransom
as we hold others ransom. We'll never relent.
She — that one over there, Miss Misery,
laughable in her rags — is our suffering.
We'll have none of her, and make things worse
for her each day. Let her eat charcoal!
Life's riches — we mean to have them all.
Gorgeous to begin with, we make ourselves
more so by soft living and each new treatment
we hear of: acid peel, dermalift…
And we are shoppers with a vengeance!
All this so as to be bait for princes —
who are, quite simply, wealth and power on legs.
They're improved versions of father — to twist
like a wedding ring round a slim white finger.
we want one each! Get this: we are what's happening.
We will seize our moment, and make it stretch to
a lifetime. We say: If the shoe fits, wear it;
if not, start cutting. A toe, a slice of heel —
what's a little cosmetic surgery?
Who would not hobble through the years
to fulfil their utmost fantasy?
Rich now, we'll become richer with each breath
when we get who, and what, we want. Yes:
we're the ones who will inherit the earth —
nothing and nobody can stop us!