Little Red Letter
By Jynx'sBox
Valerie Diaz

I received a letter
In the mail today
It was mangled and bloodied
And as most would say

It was hardly worth mention
This little red letter
But to ignore it completely
Now this I knew better

With trembling fingers
I tore at the creases
But it made sad work
No paper released; when

From the depths of this letter
A sound came before me
Of lonely children; this voice spoke,
To tell me your story

“I know of a child”
The letter did speak
“Who drowned in oppression
And from their soul leaked

A wailing despair
That shifted the world
Spreading like sickness
A disease was unfurled

From child to child
It sifted like powder
This sadness, this anger,
The wailing grew louder”

The letter then paused
And took a deep breath
“So gritting their cries
That there was little left

Of a hope to save
Anyone from this poison”
Then the letter grew fierce
“Those children; like toys in

An empty box; they laid
There listless and broken . . .”
Then its prophecies were cut
The rest told but unspoken

Within the letter itself
I knew there hid
The truths so desperately sought
After what’s done is did

There is a lonely sort
Of light in the grey
Obsession and turmoil
Over what one cannot say

That is the price set above us
When the empty is filled
And things discovered tend
To defy the will

My heart was in shambles
My mind a mess
And the letter lay quiet
Despite the stress

My fingers inflicted
On cherry red paper
No surface gave way
For any such taker

Of the meaning behind
Those foreboding words
Silk of finely spun sadness
Illness without known cure

I had to know
Your name, your face
Desperation had coiled;
Sewn in me like lace

Around the collar of a blouse
Until I tossed it aside
My mind suddenly cleared
No longer fighting a tide

And the letter lay there
Strewn across the floor
Its tip just peaking under
The edge of my door

I felt calm and collected;
My heart beating much slower
The desperate need that’d ensnared me;
That desire proved over

But now fear grabbed my throat
And shook me like a person bespelled
Whatever that letter was
Its spoke words to foretell

A fate far worse than death
In my personal mind
Depression to the point of self-loathing
Hate of an evil kind

I no longer wished for you
No longer longed for your name
You became of little consequence to
The principle of the game

My own clarity would come
Before the wellbeing of a stranger
That blasted note, with its tale;
The advent of a horrible danger

So I moved on with my day
And the day after that
Not till a week later did my curiosity
Buzz once more like a gnat

I felt the letter with careful fingers
Expecting no change in the near time
But found with the up most surprise
That the red had split in a line

Conceding to the lure I pulled
The white from the red
And flipped the paper open
Not expecting the words I read

Someone sent me a letter
In the mail the other day
This Little Red Letter
From you did say;

‘I am the one with the sickness
I am the one who spread it first
I gave in to my sadness
And unleashed it like a curse

Now my generation is wilting
They are dropping like flies
They shed tears that fill oceans
With no real reason to cry

So I’ve locked myself away
From this horrible thing I’ve let loose
I’m too afraid to step outdoors
Afraid everyone’s loathing will noose

Around my heart and my neck
Meaning I’ve heard little from outside
Whoever may have received this letter
Please help me and abide

Please someone send me a letter
And send me one soon
Lest I believe that the world
Was lost in the moon

Swallowed by coldness
Driven by spite
Please just write me a letter
Tell me that the world is alright’

I was shocked at the words you wrote
Expecting very little less and more
It was then that I realized
That I was mistaken before

No one person could have done this
Just as one cannot spread lust
Like pride; sadness comes from within
I am you, and you are all of us