Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Write in the MYSTERY genre (04/05/07)
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TITLE: Page Five-sixty-four | Previous Challenge Entry
By Henry Clemmons
04/08/07 -
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A wooden chair at table’s end, empty
Silverware, soup bowl, silence, “She’s late”
Mother drapes a shawl over slumped shoulders
Steps beyond ripped screen door, into the darkness.
Semi-lit by streetlamps glow
Lying on a cracked sidewalk
Sara’s Bible pages flutter in cool autumn breezes
Smeared red drops stain scripture
On page Five-sixty-four
Shivering shadows dance
On the secluded walkway
Shuffling footfalls approach, not heavy, stop
A puzzled grunt, a sigh, a deep breath
Shaking hands leaf through the abandoned leather-bound book.
A whimper, a gasp, a hushed cry
“My God.”
“It can’t be.”
Large dogs howl in the distance
Nearby bushes rustle.
A butane flame flickers from trembling fingers
Blood soaked words illumed
On page Five-sixty-four
Quivering lips read slowly, softly
“O my strength, come quickly to help me”.
Sara, sweet, Sara
Why are you bleeding?
Reading Psalms?
Fleeing from soul’s surrender?
Sara, my sweet, where have you gone?
Whispering winds sing
Through a steeple’s silhouetted cross
Weeping willows sway and swish
A slight sliver of light spills
From the front of a chapel across the street.
In sanctuary‘s womb, mother spies Sara
Praying at the altar
Tears of blood pool at her knees
Sobs, cries, weeping, sorrowful moans
“Help me, Lord, help me.”
“I’m pregnant, seventeen, single
How can I tell her, Lord, how?
I have your Word, but I need you
To feel the embrace of your arms
To ease the sting of sin’s snare.”
Mother reads silently again from page Five-sixty-four
For He has not despised or disdained
The suffering of the afflicted ones
He has not hidden His face
For He has listened to their cries for help.
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