Kimberly McMahon has been writing for over 20 years, and her style has been described as "postmodern abstraction on a par with Anne Sexton". A collection of her work, entitled "talk, then" is scheduled to be published in early 2006.

Ms. McMahon divides her time between Chicago and Paris, France.

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the conflicted percussive
kimberly mcmahon
these notes: singular
and blue
his strings tugging
at keys
insistent solos: only seconds
ticking

her metronome heart
could pulse twice as fast
and never keep time
with his song

it builds - an elegy
for mourning feet
then stumbles across
ivory-skinned
senses soaked
then wrung dry

his human machine-hands
release their will:
perfunctory, meandering-
the paregoric of she

she who kept him,
sleepless and dreaming
in the lilt of her
humming wings, wet with
an ocean of wanton energy

she who razored the alarm
of his sudden scream
with her siren's call
and a cracking mirror-sound

of eyes locking
of a spell broken
of the deep knell of
true freedom

the classic high C
debated gently
left-

laid to sleep slow
and haunting
reducing its opacity,
the star of sound
winding particular,
a galaxy unbound

and what followed:
the days were only days-
overprocessed indistinctions
in a 4-4 rhythm
chemical and cold
as the march of time itself

no rest unagonised
no rest from the recurrences-
the physical tremors felt
the longitudinal air
playing its role, carrying
those notes
mindful of where they land

and they land as fresh ash
clinging to be reborn
in the fever of her hope.

Copyright © 2001 by Kimberly McMahon