JW Bella
Hamsters Are Screwed

A hamster in the wild can run for 5 miles in a single night without rest or breaks.
And yet when we get them as pets, we get them…a wheel.
A circular device that serves as a substitute for the wild.
Wait... so a shape that serves same sentence indefinitely is supposed to replace a location that allows lives to be liberated to increase longevity?
Interesting. My cage makes sense.
Slim metal bars give the illusion that these creatures can be a part of their natural habitat.
Slim sizes at Torrid and Lane Bryant and Ashley Stewart give the illusion that maybe I can be in the single digits while surprisingly super-sized.
Tunnels of eye-catching colors protrude out of their domicile convincing them that are going on an escapade beyond the confines of their condo.
Tunnel-vision of television dilute the dirty waters of Flint, Michigan, the deaths of minority children and teens, the disruption of family values and traditions, the decrease of attention to wounded veterans and military families, and the destruction of the true meaning of religion and higher powers.
Variations of decorations that attempt to keep your hamster occupied because movement is what they do best.
Variations of distractions that attempt to keep society from admitting what is really going on with the gallivanting and gullible GOP and Democrats, keep money as the pimp that puts us hoes out on the street in clothes made of simple thoughts and greed colored g-strings, and keep social media the King and Queen in our monarchy of melodramatic mess.
Disposable material that shades the smells and sights of pee and poop from owner’s view and makes the hamster seem so sparkling clean.
Disposable makeup that can make a girl look a woman, a man look like woman, a woman look like a man, but no one look like themselves.
And the wheel. The ring-shaped promise that the hamster will always be able to go somewhere. Anywhere. As long as they make the effort and move.
My arms and legs push the wheel every day. At my job. At my house. At my church. On my phone. On my computer. On my ipad. In the car. In the store. In the fitness center. Around my school. Around my neighborhood. Around my country.
And as much as I keep pushing, I get no closer to freedom.
No closer to the wild where I can be me.