Mantras

by Karen M. Raymond-Hart

        
                   Now I lay me down to sleep...
                   I pray the Lord my soul to keep...
                   If I die before I wake...
                   I pray the Lord my soul to take...

              
                              childhood mantra
                              but sometimes I slipped


                 prayed the Lord my life to take
                 before I slept....before


                   Ring around the rosie....
                   Pocket full of posies...
                   Ashes, ashes...
                   We all fall down !...


                                     down and down
                                     please not today


                                     horror in bed
                                     terror by day


                   Twinkle, twinkle little star...
                   How I wonder what you are...
                   Up above the world so high...
                   Like a diamond in the sky... 


                               how I wish I was up so high
                               away, no pain, no, NO


                    sometimes I was
                    floating above, gone away


          these childhood words ring through
          around
          raping
          my mind
          memories not bittersweet but
          dirty screaming swirling dishwater poison lunatic black


                                    suffer the children
                                    lambs of God



                      sacrificed on the alter
                      of family and country
					
					  
            10/16/96