Crazy Mary and Others

Crazy Mary and Others is an emotion-evoking look into the life of a woman who has been destined by humanity to be the outsider. She walks in a world where simple communication to others is an effort too great to comply with. Mary, having been released from an institution (that the author keeps obscure) returns to a life unclaimed and she feels unlived. She returns back to the streets of Manhattan only to find that life, as she knew it, is gone.

Michele Belluomini has tapped into the emotions and intelligence of a woman who, if we were to see Mary on the street, would be just another indigent “crazy” shuffling their way through a bustling city of indifference. As the story progresses, you experience the shock and sudden despair of Mary as she tries desperately to justify her existence among a world of people that are now gone and her home of yesteryear where the flowers no longer bloom. Belluomini works with emotional placement to bind those things both past and present and looks at the symbolism of the earth, stars, moon and life sources. She intricately weaves this journey with an overwhelming sense of the positive. The readers find themselves overwhelmed with the plight of Mary, and with a sense of hopefulness, they dream that this insightful, intelligent woman is able to once again, find her place in this world gone awry.

At the beginning of this wonderful piece of art, Belluomini states a stanza so powerful that it bears repeating for this review. As a writer, I find so many things to quote in this work, that it has been a sincere struggle to only pick out only one for the limited space I have. The title poem, “Crazy Mary,” states:

“still not sure how she got to this cold eastern city still not sure what the terms of exile are she says: I can remember the past, but I cannot recall the future she says: no, that is not what I wanted to say I wanted to say, the future behind me is the past in front of me Yes, That is what I wanted to say”

Those few opening lines begin the journey of internal struggle for our heroine Mary and her final plan to make sense of her world and ours. Belluomini will change your mind and heart about our “crazy” homeless. She will reach into your soul and command your attention to the fact these “crazies” are people too and are deserving of our love, our attention and our respect. Many lives are lived in many different ways, one no more respective than the next. Crazy Mary and Others also offers some other works from Belluomini that will also stir your soul, open your eyes and make your heart, a better place to dwell within.

•