Damned By The Bell Poem by Maura Herboldsheimer

Her hands continue to cling to the gloves in her fist; a peculiar sight, for the temperatures can get awfully chilly. Her garb is colorless, bleak, black. Her bonnet offers no shield to the bite of wind, and instead looks awkward against the curling locks of fine blonde hair.


She looks like an angel, and it is all I can do not to wonder why such a creature could carry such a forlorn expression across her perfect features.


The wind continues to rise, a shrill whistle of times to come and times that have passed, and it offers a suiting compliment to the somber church bells ringing in slow succession. For the world, the wind blows; only for someone who will never note the pass of time again will the haunting bells trill their melody.


It seems to me that the more I scrutinize this morose being, the higher my heart races and the more my body wracks with the cold. It's a curious thing to experience, but I could no more dwell on it than life could refuse air, for this girl turns to me, her strangely knowing eyes pinning me with a look that I can't even begin to fathom. She stands.


My feet seem planted, nay, infused with the ground, and the world seems to still. Everything passes by in a blur, but her hair floats about her head as if we are immersed in water. I can scarcely breath anymore at the notion of it.


The church bells continue their song, the wind weaving in and out of their notes to create a rhapsody of chaos and rememberance. I find it beautiful, even as the morbidity of it completely purges me of any other feeling. I am more alike to this celestial entity than I know.


She is suddenly before me, wide eyes and a sad smile. Her hands envelope mine, and the sensation is ethereal. I embrace it with an eagerness I have never experience, and in doing so, I bring forth stunning images to my mind, questions that have always plagued me, memories that I have wanted to forget. I have received all the answers, and she is the key to it all.


With that revelation, I am left alone.


Not a blade of grass stirs under my feet