Kathleen Hellen

LIFT HER TO THE WITNESSES

Lay her flat
Open airways, pinch the nose and
every three or four (which is it?)

seconds: breathe, breathe
the failed resuscitation

Her lips beget the bluing. Lying on her back—
the rattling from her purse-d lips like snoring
isn't sleeping. Is she breathing? we ask
standing by the "Help me!"
then collapsed


Kathleen reads "Lift Her to the Witnesses":



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Kathleen confesses: "I was compelled to write 'Lift Her to the Witnesses' by the viral video of a transgender woman beaten in a Baltimore-area McDonald's as employees stood by, laughing. It recalled the 1964 murder investigation of Kitty Genovese in Queens, NY and the phenomenon known as the 'bystander effect.'"

KATHLEEN HELLEN is a poet and the author of The Girl Who Loved Mothra (Finishing Line Press, 2010). Awards include the 2012 Washington Writers' Publishing House Prize in poetry, with her collection The Ghost of Little Gods forthcoming. Her work has appeared recently in Cimarron Review; The Evansville Review; Harpur Palate; Poemeleon; Poetry Northwest; among others; and was featured on WYPR's The Signal.