Pearl River Community College's award winning literary magazine

Special Edition—Spring-Summer 1998

Special Section

MCCCWC entry—poetry division

The Yeller

by Jennifer Roberts

Had you given me a painting,
all in angry swirls
of black and red.
I could have hidden it away.
Now, I hide myself instead.

The words slip through the cracks in the door.
Jagged splinters of sound seek me out in my room.
They bounce off white walls and reverberate more.
There is no escape.
I accept my doom.

Through layers of pink sheets and the pillow over my head.
It weaves itself into the pattern of my quilt.
I can do nothing but listen
to your bait and switch.
First speak of love, and then reek of guilt.

Silence is golden,
so I let myself shine
in the black little hole I've made in my bed.
You've had your say, now I will have mine,
but of course, it will be in my head.