Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras – BRAINFØG VIII


Visual poem with a title that reads: BRAINFØG VIII.

There is a light gray, blooming image behind the words. The poem’s orientation is landscape. The words are arranged in short phrases, connected in a path by horizontal (--) and vertical ( | ) lines. Line breaks are denoted by the / symbol.

Roughly following connected paths, the text reads:

(from top left corner):
men / who – dress in full face / masks | shatter door / shatter glass –ransack / the trunk | never / grow up / get shot across / the knee | took his car & / left him & bloodied | hid from a swarm / of helicopters | wear a tough / face | mold fire / into a fist


(from top right, centered as a wheel hub): 
women / who
| (up) saw him get / killed on the street
– (right) ended up / in a mental / hospital
| (down) wake up with / baseball / bats / smacking rearview / mirrors
– (left) lost custody of her / husband / with an older man

(from lower middle, text upside-down):
whose –  daughter deports / her father – 
whose – son killed his sister / in-law

(from bottom of image, connected by | to the word “whose” from previous path at the phrase 
whose

“house burned / down” the text reads top to bottom):

apartment reduced / to ash

luckily no / one was home

(this text reads left to right): 

house burned / down

arson started at midnight 

bone / collapse / nothing / left but a / roof

read image description (alt text)


Artist’s Statement: For The Fresno 15 Creative Writing Marathon, I used 15 Rorschach I made by dabbing a red rose with paint onto paper. This series is an attempt to write on brain fog: forgetfulness, incoherent thoughts, mental fatigue, lack of clarity, and more. Each day became a challenge: the strings attached within me were reluctant to push, create, and pull; memory became a mass of confusion to frame. Luckily, these 15 days were possible due to persistence and help from my mentor, Anthony Cody, author of The Rendering. Lastly, this series is one step forward toward my future poetic work.

Leave a comment