The E-Literature Collection Vol. 1 describes this work as: "A block of text that on first appearance seems to be a simple description of a pleasant outing reveals a grisly story of murder as words successively fade away. This work makes innovative use of simple combinatory techniques, reminiscent of Burroughs cut-ups, to reflect on a real-life tragedy."
The author herself describes this work as: "...a work in Flash format. It contains three separate but related sections: the title prose poem, "Girls' Day Out"; the author's note on the poem; and "Shards," a poem composed from phrases found in articles in the Houston Chronicle that covered the events that inspired the poem"
In order to experience this work of literature, I first had to download the file onto my computer. The first time I tried to open the file, it came up as random text/code that was completely unreadable, and obviously not what I was meant to be looking at. With the help of my finace (who is much more tech savvy than I am) I downloaded a program called Stuffit Expander and could then open the file with this program.
The file opens in a window displaying four images. The largest image is of dry vast land, like something one would find out west. The title "Girls' Day Out" is displayed. Three other images are displayed. The top one is of a horse's body and legs (the horse is saddled). The one to the left is of the same horse's neck and reins with a hand petting the horse. The bottom image is of the horses head.
Once I pass my cursor over one of the three images, the photographs inverts itself to look like a photographic negative and another title is displayed. For the top image it is "Poem", the left image is "Author's Note", and the bottom image is "An Unearthing".
I click on the image entitled "Poem" and the screen transforms to a black background with white text. This is a poem entitled "Girls' Day Out" but it looks like prose upon first glance. I mistakenly click the screen in trying to copy the text and this causes the words to fade and show me other words from the poem. This happens a few times and every time it comes back to the original text. Then at the end it says: "For the Calder Road murder victims" and slowly displays each girl's name. There is no sound but silence.
I then click on "Author's Note" which transforms the screen again into a plain black background with white text. This time it is a description of the author's life and connection to the incident which the poem is about. There are also two photographs, one of the author on a horse, and one of her sister on a horse. Clicking either of the pictures brings me back to the main page.
Finally, I click on "An Unearthing". This brings me to a screen that has white background and black text. This is a poem entitled "Shards from The Houston Chronicle" and seems to be words and phrases that the author extracted from the article about the incidents. Once I click on the words they transform into another poem. This happens a few times, then the last time it brings me back to the main page. During the transformation of the words, a feeling of something decomposing and deteriorating is what I experience. The transformation of the words also produces a feeling of things become clearer as the words come together, but not clear enough as the snippets aren't enough to form a whole story; much like the solving of a mystery or a murder. The author repeats a lot of words, most notably "a belt tied around a tree" and "a human molar".
The poem is about the author's experience riding with her sister at Star Dust Trail Rides in League City-Texas, where later the bodies of multiple murder victims, all young women, were found. The feeling is eerie, the silence only adds to this, so much so that I felt myself getting chills while reading the poem. The transition of the words occurs so slowly that a feeling of suspense builds up inside me as I anticipate what might 'happen' next.
In the poem, it says six girls, but once the names are displayed, only the names of four girls are shown. Then in "An Unearthing" snippets from he articles mention the remains of up to 32 young women found on the land.
I found a few reviews of Kerry Lawrynovicz's work:
The first can be found here by Ashley Geiger.
The second can be found here by Leonardo Flores.
The third can be found here by Victoria Lang.
Another website in connection with the author lies here. This features a short biography of the author and has a link to Girls' Day Out.
Articles on the investigation of the murders in League City, Texas can be found below:
Hopes rise for new breaks in old 'killing fields' cases
Deaths in the 'Killing Fields' remain unsolved
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