The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Gatekeeper
by Angela Yuriko Smith
They thought they could hold me
with enchantment, trapped in iron
and reduced to ornamentation…
a trifle barely noticed, some thing
to knock around, knock down
knock up. They thought wrong.
.
They put a ring on me, an ownership
and imprisoned me here, a position
of exclusion, meant to keep me outside
ostracized, no entry, unwelcome.
.
They forgot that from the outside
I have the best view. I see it all.
It’s through me they must pass
to their place of privilege. They
shut me outside, excluded me
and thus I have become
their gatekeeper.
Fiction © Copyright Angela Yuriko Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.
More from Angela Yuriko Smith:
Angela Yuriko Smith is an American poet, author and co-publisher of Space and Time magazine, a publication that has been printing speculative fiction, art and poetry since 1966. Together we build a poem as a community each month. Visit “Exquisite Corpse” at SpaceandTime.net to submit.
Spreading the Writer's Word 
This poem has great strength in the rhythm which builds up so beautifully to that killer last line – good work.
An excellent poem.
I really like the route you took this prompt, Angela! The irony works so well.