Quiet Mountain Essays

Copyright © 2005; All Rights Reserved by Author

Measurements
by
Melissa Ooten

Abort: v./ to bring something to an end or come to an end at an early
stage

A fetus
A rocket launch
A relationship

After shock: n./ 1.  a small earthquake that follows a larger one
2. a delayed psychological or physical reaction to a serious event or
trauma

A sole soul’s eruption, mine
One less world destruction, everyone’s
Silent complications, ours (yours and mine)

Effect:  n./ 1.  a change or changed state occurring as a direct result
of some action
2.  success in bringing about a change in somebody or something
3.  an impression produced in the mind of somebody who sees, hears, or
reads something, especially one that is deliberately (my emphasis)
intended

A success?  Only through a saturation of failure, mine
Success!  Escape, everyone’s
An abandoned resolution.   Perhaps success (yours), failure (mine)…
but perhaps success (mine), failure (yours)

I came to measure my peril…

To mourn the ending before the beginning
To contemplate global chemical dependencies
To cut our cord (yours and mine)

           …but I
   
               Buried the natal grief, mine.
               Let the bomb explode, everyone’s.
               Stitched together our vestiges, (yours and mine).

           …and found my escape.

Contributor's Notes...

Melissa Ooten grew up in her own quiet mountains in rural Tennessee before moving to Virginia for
graduate school.  She is currently finishing her Ph.D. in women's history at the College of William and Mary
and resides in Richmond, VA.

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