The L≪3rum (Kerum) Poem by Emmie Louiese Pope

The halls echo with laughter spent,
Laughter filled with naught but emptiness.
Those hallways never shone,
Never filled with the sounds of that which it was meant to be.
Children cast out,
Told,
You are safe,
You are in the Kerum.
None may hurt you any more.
But the Kerum was F4L53.
The Kerum was L135.
The children never laughed.
The children always begged,

and begged,

and begged,

To D13.

Those twisted hallways mocked.
54F37Y.
Is what you'll N3V3R find H3R3.
L0V3.
You shall be 5P173FULLY D3N13D.
P41N.
Y0U 5H4LL F0R3V3R 834R! !

Those hallways still stand.

To this very day,
Very hour,
Very minute,
Very second,
They stand eternally.

Nobody who lives remains.
___________________________________________

One child.
One cold, pitiful child.
Grew hot,
And 8URN3D the very 70R7UR3,
That none before had 3V3R escaped.
For even in D347H Kerum kept it's hold.
None who died L3F7,
R3M41N1N6 in that 70R7uR3 forever.

But the one pitiful child,
8URN3D so that others could finally R357.

She 4L0N3 remains.
W4LK1N6 the deserted hallways.
When 5H3 walks by,
You know.
For her laughter fills the air.

For 5H3 a mere <H1LD had V4NQU15H3D Kerum!

But her laughter is H0LL0W.
For the 07H3R5 may have been laid to R357,
But Kerum still has it's hold.
She walks laden with 4N6U15H and P41N.
Alone in the D4RKN355.
H0P1N6 beyond H0P3,
That 4NY0N3,
ANYONE.
May still yet lay H3R to rest.

But her sacrifice is far from rewarded.

For always,

always,

Kerum gets it's pay in the end.
For that,
Is the very meaning,
of

THE KERUM.