(Strands of blue satin water flowing)
A girl runs naked, terrified,
through the marshy grass near the river.
The man who dwells in my shadow,
clean shaven, neatly combed hair, only twenty years old,
will delicately violate her.
The camera is filming this for my entertainment.

I am sitting with my family (my mother),
watching this film broadcasted live on PBS.
The phone rings, how irritating!
It is Her.
I hate Her! the naked, terrified girl.
I am polite and say, 'hello.'
She speaks with Her annoying rhetoric.
I lay the dead body of the phone receiver on the floor.
**** Her voice! I can still hear it!
It is taking my attention away from the show.
I grab the receiver and hang up the phone.

The camera continues to film the young, clean shaven man
with perfectly combed hair.
He is now in his backyard, in a cage with his slaves
(fathers of the violated girls).
The man uses a small garden shovel to dig out the fathers' faces
replacing them with that of a hairless, toothless canine.
Will these deaf and mute creatures survive
in a world of supplied narcissism?
The camera is still running for the entertainer.

Struck with the realization that the ******* the phone
had been violated and is now dead,
I pick up the phone.
She is still there, but is now silent.
I tell her that I did not mean to hang up on her,
but I wanted to see the film.
'That is alright,' she says, and remains silent.

I am so happy... NO, I am!
This is THE RED TABLE can stand in the window of a broken house.
No car to move on the parkway.

Don't walk across THE MOUNTAIN is tall in shadows of a river,
a dark water.
Fish haven't eaten the tree of bait.
Circles around the sky?

I'm happy today IN AN AMOUNT avenue of trees,
an affair of ****** nothing.
I am not here... THIS IS EASY... Time is ticking... See:
The broken watch
The broken
WATCH THE BROKEN!!!

The singing computer and yellow paper
give messages of cordiality.
Voices behind add to SILENCE AROUND thick mists.
I am happy, not sad, with blue eyes and green.
While the sky above is rising to the sea.

Shadows of stone and of light
scream in the still, lonely places.

Through quiet panic, they bite,
leaving immovable traces.

Spent nerves, defined by the fight,
saddened by betraying graces,

remember the tender height
of broken dreams the fall faces.

While spirit sleeps through the night,
feeble thought manically races

toward the deity of sight,
reaching for golden embraces.

She closed her eyes and allowed
the slow, heavy notes to ground her.
Her body became heavy,
with each somber chord her back
and shoulders sank into the bed.

She sensed her still fingers and toes
as the simple musical phrase
continued to build upon itself,
becoming more defined,
increasing in intensity,
creating complex serenity.

Pain became sadness,
sadness became comfort, and somehow
peaceful joy emerged.

This happy intricacy climaxed
into melancholy abruptness.
Painful chords, angrier than before,
had been betrayed by hope.

Her blood felt thicker, slower.
Her nerves seemingly stopped
sending impulses to her brain.

She continued to sink into the bed,
perhaps through the floor,
deep into the ground beneath.

Pressure of sanctimonious earth
pushed down upon her,
mocking any arranged attempts to breathe.

She didn't resist. She felt comforted,
secure in the unforgiving earth.

The music ended,
as did her emotional anesthetic,
and she was finally able to cry
into the safety of her
comforting pillow.

the bus ride would be long
                                             quiet whisperings of passengers all around
                                             LOUD AND OVERWHELMING
                                strangely quiet      still     distant

feelings of OVERWHELMING INTESITY
                                              of every empty word
                                                                                  spoken by the dejected

hum of the bus engines
                                                            ROARING SCREAMS

                   surrounded
                                         by a thick blanket of silence
                    alone
                                          feeling burning numbness

With the bus's QUIET loud RUCKUS
                                       BRAIN filling with television snow
               VENOMOUS VAGUE SHOUTING RAVAGING blank fields
                                                                                  lacking understanding

body oversized and heavy
                                                                                        DiFfErEnT
                  UnFiTtInG
                                                         UnBeLoNgInG
          too transparent for an earthly realm
                                               TOO HEAVY FOR THE DIVINE

Gum stretched     t--h--i--n     from a child's mouth
           into the ethereal
                                          with filthy fingers
                                                                            of decussated spirits

                             the lowering sun shining through
                                                                AcloudedBUSwindow

              Shun the BRUISED skY
                                                                    hints of deep purple and red
                                                                    glimpses of blue.

a small girl with her mommy
gently caressing her cheek
against a teddy bear's soft fur.

                                 EVERYTHING IS OKAY!
                                 EVERYTHING IS OKAY!!!
                                 EVERYTHING IS OKAY!!!!!
                                 EVERYTHING IS OKAY!!!!!!!
                                 EVERYTHING IS OKAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                                 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!
                                 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!

Called by dolorous prayers
spawned at the hand of pandemonium
the fearless mercenary
extends her silken wings

Living pinions
enshroud the broken hearted
cultivating safety
and validation
allowing sincere grieving

Her gentle but fearless nobility
confronts the vulturine beasts
of doubt
angst
and despondency
freeing the wounded soul
now progeny of  hope

Her perceptive optimism
is discerning
of the healing path
as she carries the revived chrysalis
to sovereignty

Once there
her wings separate
to release the newly formed star
luminous and vivid
as though plucked
directly from the castle of God

- Kerry Ann Herrmann