Hall Of Mirrors

Vexations smiling and dimly

illuminated from the glass she only

wished to shatter into the oblivion

of the world beyond in which they

cackled, moaned, and shrieked

though one world not

of her own understanding

or, truly, was it not possible

for her to understand?

“Hall of Mirrors”

Prison warden ordering

glass coating for the walls

did its deed

hammering nails into

souls hoping for a scream

like the apparition of Munch’s

masterpiece on the

art of

screaming,

art of screaming

with a deeper meaning.

Backwards in time she

lay in the ditch sludgy

praying

caked in the blood of one

she thought she knew

the beating, pulsating heart of

only to find out that the truth

sometimes does not lie

with the most graceful of deeds

but in fact, with those most

pungent.

Cheating makes its rounds,

and instead of just shattering

her screams, she took

a dinner plate

and shattered

the glass

so that she could cheat

her sentence

and shatter herself

into her personal ditch without prayers;

a specific example of the type of

world

probably in the

warden’s

head

when he offered glass

survival

Nell’Inferno.