New Dollbaby Piece up at Jacket2: EXTREME TEXTS

From:

 Extreme texts

Edited by Divya Victor

Dollbaby

The poetics of hysteria and motherhood

MEGAN BURNS

Trigger warning: abuse, suicide

The following document is an archive of two years of my life when I lost custody of my children after I tried to end an abusive marriage. The court took my kids from me based on the art I create: appropriately, the art in this case centers around historical instances when real women also lost their voices, autonomy, and their lives due to their own inability to have freedom and safety in this world. It’s 2019, and women are still not safe. I want to send the song of this text into the future until the answer is sure: when are women going to be safe in this world?

Read full piece at Jacket2:

http://jacket2.org/poems/dollbaby

Doll Baby: A Tale

Everyone has a story about a doll:

these babies came wrapped up like little mummies

 each with its own piece of webbing: cocooned

 asleep, waiting to be something different

coming out of the dark box, the grey gauze lovingly taped down

to be an object desired again

when do we enjoy the gaze, 

at the moment of looking

or of looking away

when the lights flash and dim in the bedroom

as I unwrap you

are you speaking to me

what are you saying

our deep silences together

sacred in the piece

and then of things we shall not speak about

floundering in this deep water

what will happen will not be gentle

words as they carve down to bone

but about beauty, less than

but about the caress of eyes upon

more so, and I will pour out 

                       (religious tract packed in the box about being saved)

at the bottom//belief 

be not unbelieving

 make// you// something// to// sing// about