What Happened to Martha

They tell us the boxes keep us safe. They give our society order, structure. Everyone has a place, a slot to fit into so that the machine keeps working.

We all live in boxes. Confined to four walls - our ideas, dreams and feelings are enchained, their wings bound so they cannot escape. If you don’t fit into a box, they take you away - no one knows where.

That’s what happened to Martha. Sweet, naïve little Martha, who thought she could be both a scientist and a musician.

She was wrong.

They came knocking at her door, clad in black armour and armed with tasers. They dragged her away as she kicked and screamed, and tossed her in the back of their van as if she were trash.

Because if you didn’t follow the rules, and pick a box, that’s what you were.

Trash.

I don’t know what happened to Martha; we don’t talk about her anymore. But sometimes, at night, I still hear the screams of the little girl, taken away because she refused to be put into a box.