Mandy

© 2013 David Jasmin-Green

The Jubjub bird snickered at the girl's misfortune
from his lofty perch. “Help me, someone,”
she whispered, and the bird danced merrily,
studied her with one black, malevolent eye
and cackled all the more - and then
the apparition vanished in a flash.

He had come in the night, three days ago, she thought,
but it may have been longer. The red eyed devil,
the frumious bandersnatch that her mother warned her
about when she was a little girl. The bogeyman left her torn
and bleeding, an epiphany of agonising thoughts
laying siege to her fevered mind.

“Revelation!” the monster cried as he struck her
again and again. “Mystery, Babylon the Great,
Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.
You are a taint on the family, a scarlet woman,
and it is my God-given duty to punish you
most severely for your sins. Jezebel! Harlot! Whore!”

Racked with guilt and a tangle of abstract furies
the monster said that he didn't want to hurt her,
but he hurt her anyway. He said he couldn't help it.

Riddled with angst, a smorgasbord of hatred
and a miscellany of more ephemeral feelings
tore through her throbbing skull in flashing purples,
acid yellows and murky greens intermingled
with an infected discharge from her ears
as she lay choking on her own blood.
“Help me,” Mandy gurgled. “Daddy, I love you.
Please don't hurt me any more.”