the dolorous pleas
echo through her ears,
like wisps floating
down a canal

the piercing screeches
beset her sanity,
like hounds chewing
through oak doors

their abject tears
drip, whimper,
frozen in the air,
scrambling in descent

many turn their heads,
slice their ears off,
let the blood saturate,
and mute it away

others bind the sight,
the sound, the life,
remove it,
dispatch it, for good

but she,
she knows

and bottles it all up
to show to the world