Shed it like a snakeskin
The vile and bile I revile it all
The crumpled papers of nasty rats running and cheerful birds chirping in my brain refuse to be
thrown away
I want an eraser
An ocean of calm
A peaceful abyss of nothing for just one moment
After the shedding
A sign – a deep breath
Of renewal
© Cristina A. Bejan
Cristina A. Bejan, DPhil (Oxon) is an award-winning Romanian-American historian, theatre artist, and poet. A Rhodes and Fulbright scholar, she has had fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), the Wilson Center and Georgetown University. She has taught at five universities and one community college, and currently researches and teaches at the University of Denver. Bejan has authored three books with more on the way. Bejan received her Masters and DPhil (PhD) in Modern History from the University of Oxford and her BA in Philosophy (Honors) from Northwestern University, where she also studied theatre. While a researcher for USHMM, she authored 64 articles on camps in Africa and Europe for the “Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos – Vol. 3.” Bejan has written 19 plays and performs her spoken word poetry under her stage name Lady Godiva. Her creative work has appeared in the US, UK, Romania and Vanuatu. Bejan runs the arts and culture platform Bucharest Inside the Beltway (BiB), based in Denver, CO. Please visit: cristinaabejan.com and her DU faculty page.
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