Hannah Mae Karau

PALE WALLS: A VILLANELLE FOR A VILLAINESS

Why am I here?
Four pale walls—trapping—are all I see.
I feel only fear.

I laugh! At my face’s flesh, with my fingers—I tear!
So they restrain my hands behind me.
Why am I here?

I cry. The food-men glare and sneer.
“We said you’d get what you deserve. See?”
I feel only fear.

I smile. Staring at the ceiling, my mind remains unclear.
Writhing in a reeking pool of my own vomit, I beg to be free.
Why am I here?

I scream, what have I done that was so severe?
Sitting alone, rocking, and loudly speaking to nobody,
I feel only fear.

I remember! Holding my struggling child in the waves of blue, under the pier.
Oh! How I will forever cherish the sound of his final, gasping plea.
Why am I here?
I feel only fear.


Hannah's YouTube video reading of "Pale Walls...":



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Hannah confesses: ""Pale Walls" began with a curiosity about events in my birth year—2001. The one that stuck with me the most was the drowning of 5 children by their mother Andrea Yates. This, in combination with a childhood fear of La Llarona, the Weeping Woman, inspired the poem."

HANNAH MAE KARAU is an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota, where she works for the Creative Writing MFA program as an outreach assistant. She is majoring in English and aims to receive her own MFA in the future. Hannah is an avid reader and recently began a blog to review books from new authors. Besides journalistic work and her reviews, she has published “Nutrition Facts” in Gemini magazine.

Day 27: "The Devil's Villanelle"

My love of poetry developed over years. At first, I thought all poetry had to follow some rhyme scheme or form. After discovering free verse and prose poetry, I came to see poetic forms not as restrictive but simply better suited to express certain ideas than other forms or prose.

This is not to say I'm confident writing in all poetic forms. For one thing, like the the person the devil addresses in today's tour poem by J.R. Solonche, I'd love to be able to write better villanelles. —Gerald So

Catherine Wald

VILLANELLE AT MCDONALD'S

At home there is no noise or light;
I rarely welcome company;
no strangers' eyes shine warm and bright.

Here counters sparkle slick and white
in all their clean facilities.
(At home there is no noise or light.)

The smell of fries implies delight.
I can't afford them, just a tea,
where strangers' eyes shine warm and bright.

I've never tried to spend the night—
just share some quiet reverie.
(At home there is no noise or light.)

Please grant me this small human right,
some modicum of dignity,
where strangers' eyes shine warm and bright.

Why scare old pigeons into flight?
Why withhold human sympathy
where strangers' eyes shine warm and bright?
(At home there is no noise or light.)


Catherine reads "Villanelle at McDonald's":



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Catherine confesses: "This poem was inspired by the January 14, 2014 New York Times story of Man Hyung Lee, 77, who was forced by police to leave his usual booth at a McDonald's in Flushing, Queens."


Guest editor Erica Guo's ruling: "Man Hyung Lee’s getting kicked out of McDonalds for overstaying is no exceptional situation, but the normalness of the poem’s theme stops the reader in his/her tracks. All too often we think the subject at hand must be profound and unheard of, but it is our connection to the subject that makes us latch onto every line. Catherine Wald repeats the line 'At home there is no noise or light' every time unwelcome thoughts interject: There is no one who has not been uprooted against their will, whether it be from their country, their hometown, the carefree trajectory of their lives, or even from the local fast food restaurant."

CATHERINE WALD is an author and poet with an unimpressive criminal record. Her chapbook, Distant, burned-out stars was published by Finishing Line Press in 2011.