Sequoia Hermann

That face
Still haunts me
When I close my eyes
To blink

So fat his cheeks
Pushed up his eyes
Made him look
Chinese.

His eyes
Bloodshot and watery
Looking so sad
A confused puppy.

He leaned forward
Hot breath
Warm doughy skin
He pressed his lips to mine.

I wept
Without tears
Horrified by this man
Child's touch.

He pulled
Back and smiled
He wanted to run away
With me.

He said,
"You taste like
"Lighter fluid."
I wanted to die.

I looked
At him dead
I felt something
In my mouth.

I spat
Out came a tooth
And blood
It was mine.

I knew it had to end
He was the end
I just wanted to leave
To be free.

I fly
Now like a bird
No
Like a junebug.

Junebugs don't fly
But they roam free
They always remind me
Of me.

The sun on their back
The smile on their lips
They just go
And go.

I have that freedom
And I have that fat face
To thank
To love.

But I don't love
I hate
And wish and pray
For death.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: We have actually had a hard time interpreting this poem and judging whether or not it is pro- or anti-Girth. Sequoia Hermann herself insists it's anti-Girth, and Tommy Janofsky and Walter Janowicz agree, but I—Jam Malone, your humble editor—am not so certain. Look, if you will, at the fourteenth stanza, in which she attributes the fat face of her sexual assailant—Girth McDürchstein—to winning her freedom. Is this symbolic? If so, I find the symbolism to be murky at best. However, this poem remains on the site solely because the author herself insists Girth symbolizes everything she needed to be free of, and his final act of savagery finally snapped her out of it and forced her to reject the choices she had made and finally regain her freedom.]