Jessie Arrietty
Mrs. Torrance
she’s already been beaten down/before the film begins/but we forget this/because of
what comes later/what has happened in her life/as wife and mother/tells doctor her
husband broke her/small son’s arm/grins through gruesome details/laughs even/says I
don’t believe/he ever meant to hurt him/which sounds off/because she doesn’t believe
it herself/but I do I believe her/nicknamed the ole’ sperm bank/not just a hysterical
mess/but a huge-eyed woman/who has already lived through his worst/knows it may
come back/clothing choices cartoonish/we’re supposed to find her pathetic/sits like a
child on the bed/sobs/smokes/sleeps/wasn’t acting/her hoarse voice is real/her body is
dehydrated from crying/her hair is falling out in clumps/her voice is at the point of
cracking/strain of carrying child around/for countless takes/no not dumb at all/just
exhausted/she does not tell the truth/about what is happening in or around her/won’t
admit it/yet her caring nature is real/still she smiles/because who else will/he promised
to be better/5 miserable months on the wagon/all it took was being left alone/with his
resentment/his rage/in winter/snowbound/wants to bring a sandwich to dull boy/who
cannot be disturbed/but is/she’s very confused/provokes his rage/by being
cliché/nagging/optimistic/smiling until sometimes the smile fades/and something blank
and defeated leaks through/her actual state/hyperventilates every day/we feel guilty for
being annoyed by her/because we don’t sympathize with women/we can’t respect/and
we can’t respect a woman/who won’t respect herself/hell from the first
frame/winding/murder in the mirror/can’t squeeze herself through a window/I can’t get
out/you have to confront her/she’s been married to him for too long/the way she
behaves/is in response/to how he acts/psychological tactics of isolation/constant
criticism/dreamed he cut up the family into little pieces/and isn’t this where the donner
party happened?/and now his head through the wall/walks upstairs backwards/voice
climbing to high-pitched screech/upper register/string instruments/(heart
thudding)/blinks too often/cigarette ash grows longer by the second/doesn’t flick
it/threatens to land on top of her/symmetry of circles/every part of her expression
round/same as munch’s figure/suspended in nightmare/bony hand wrapped around
bony elbow/tries to hold herself together/holds baseball bat/with raw hands/knives
won’t beat these forces/but she holds one anyway/if only for the symbolism/axe that
wants her skull/gangly limbs flailing through frost/chased through hallways with
hexagon carpets/entrapment in shapes that repeat/skeletons covered in cobwebs/in a
maze/lines are down/the color red always blaring/bear mouth/his jacket/the
bathroom/its off-center-no-top-toilet/withheld close-ups/watches tv not plugged into
anything/her stunned face peers out/above the typewriter/gets latch open/drags him
into pantry/drives into whiteout/leaves him behind/to freeze to death/terrorized wife of a
terrifying writer/a family man/but this wasn’t something new/loses his mind so
well/abuse nothing but a season handed down/forever and ever and ever
KDK 12 calling KDK 1
she sees a flood of blood/splatter effects/“you have nothing to worry about”/says the
social worker/and we don’t know what to do with her/and we say her performance isn’t
convincing/and we give it bad awards/and maybe that’s the real reason/women don’t
win oscars for horror/because we see the scariest parts/through her eyes/her huge wet
vibrating eyes/and the hotel is called overlook/and we do
Jessie Arrietty is a multidisciplinary creative based in New York City whose work spans poetry, writing, photography, performance, and mixed-media. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and has been featured at readings and performances in venues across the country. She has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Sundress Publications’ Best of the Net.
Her work inhabits the space between conscious and unconscious states, revealing hidden emotional landscapes. Through oneiric and dreampunk frameworks, she interrogates persona and self-limiting perceptions, opening pathways toward transformation. You may view her portfolio site (designed for Google Chrome on a desktop).