“Hannah” by S. Mahnken

Siobhan Mahnken split her youth between the cornfields of Indiana and the seaside of Ireland. Each world she entered was breathtaking but remote, leaving little to do but drink and string words together. The juxtaposition between the Ireland’s safety and the United States’ deep apathy is implicit in her work.

Hannah

I hold my breath
because the next one could be            you
and      your     face would be blurred.
The news has a trigger warning
for a 10-year-olds Tuesday.

I release
when the city doesn’t match               yours
and the same mourning inside me
that cries for our lost children,
sighs, selfishly, for                              you.

But                                                      you
came home tonight.
and      you      are safe, in your bed.
Another day survived, just barely.
Another risk tomorrow.

But                                                      you
feel the weight of Americas war,
fought in your classroom.
They are not “the future,”
they are not allowed to be.
But      you      must be the one to tell them.

I hold my breath
because I cannot live in a world
without                                                you.

            I hold my breath.

From the Editor:

We hope that readers receive In Parentheses as a medium through which the evolution of human thought can be appreciated, nurtured and precipitated. It will present a dynamo of artistic expression, journalism, informal analysis of our daily world, entertainment of ideas considered lofty and criticism of today’s popular culture. The featured content does not follow any specific ideology except for that of intellectual expansion of the masses.

Founded in late 2011, In Parentheses prides itself upon analysis of the current condition of intelligence in the minds of these young people, and building a hypothesis for one looming question: what comes after Post-Modernism?

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