Literary Issue: The Mimes

by Buck Patton

Silent expressions,
on white-painted faces,
smiling, frowning, screaming.

Trapped, in their own minds,
in an invisible room
we cannot enter.

They look at me,
pleading, crying
for me to free them.

They want out,
but they are trapped,
struggling to breathe.

They reach toward me,
but I cannot help them.
I, too, am trapped.