Raggedy Ann

there is the moment

when the other shadow

slips too close

the legs quickens their pace

left right left right left right

breathe in.

hold.

glance

leftrightleftrightleftright

all the while

streetlights tower like

dead jack-o-lanterns

chanting mantras

don’t look back

shadows converge

strong hands circle the neck

the body

jerks, strains, finally folds

a rag doll with closed hands

and a stitched mouth…

she hurls screams

into blackness

but her mouth betrays her

the stitches hold

and her eyes will not close

there is picture but no sound;

movement but no chorus

frantically she bucks her straw hips

to dislodge the dead weight

that suffocates her

but there is only the

whiplash of bone

cutting through silence

all that is left

is the ringing;

the reverberations

from the pavement

echoing

“you bitches are all the same.”

her second mouth

a single scar

that wrecks her swan posture

a second mouth

that screams redemption

to the city gutter

that swallowed her blood like rain

while she waited

to finally sleep

without shaking and cutting her teeth

he carved her a smile

for the ones she had missed

while she was waiting

for winter to pass

and the sidewalk to finally give in

he carved her a smile

so she could no longer speak

her tears mixed with iron

and the city's cold shoulder gave way

her hands flailing openclose like a fishmouth

where are the women of Dan

with their swords

to fight this plague of locusts?

where is the rising

like air ?

her feet are dancing death

no sword in her mouth

the air mocks her grasp

and night falls hard and terrible

her second mouth

gapes open like a cavern

her second smile

seeps through the cracks

he pounds her skin into pavement

and the city, it keeps, it keeps.

EAC © 2010