I’m the woman inside the hourglass

Shoveling sand down the drain

No one notices me inside

Laboring, slaving away

It gets warm within these walls

Giant fingers tap the glass

Claustrophobia surrounds me

As my heart races too fast

Every grain is meticulous

Each a millionth of a second

They slip from my grasp in turn

To the funnel they are beckoned

My captivity’s controller

Much crueler than he seems

The walls in which he traps me

Built of crumbling self-esteem

Mountains split to boulders

Springing forms of falling rocks

Rocks deteriorate to dust

Sand is left to carve my lock

Melted down into a mold

As red-hot molten as they come

Shaped into a coveted figure

A cage disguised as fashion

Two shoulders and two hips

With waist close to invisible

Force the shape for beauty

Scorching pain of branding crucibles

There it sits just for looking

As pretty sand fades with age

Until it hits rock bottom

Flipped for the next decade