This poem exposes the silent cruelty of systemic injustice. It argues that while Lady Justice is supposedly blind, she only smiles at a few, leaving “the poor, / the colored, / the unseen” to suffer. The focus is on invisible chains that don’t clink but manifest as lack of opportunity.
These invisible restraints are schools that won’t teach and jobs that won’t hire. They force people to “master / the art of invisible suffering”. The poem ends with a note of fierce resistance. A soul meant to be free cannot be caged by these invisible restraints.
- Chains don’t always clink.
- Sometimes they are doors that stay closed,
- paths that vanish before you reach them,
- hands that do not know your face.