2 Posts Tagged "abuse"

Kean University 2017, The Network

Split Girl

“See.” Auntie would hiss, breath-half mist-half piss–spit splattering across my face like soggy freckles. “Don’t you see?” Spittle soaking deep into bone, I’d bob my neck up down. A metronome kicked on its side. But that was never enough. My compliance meant nothing till it suffered. Till I suffered. Till I looked. “Can’t you see?” A banshee-screech that bounced off mirrored glass like my small skull in Auntie’s gargantuan grip. Bang. Bang.  “I see.” My raspy exhale fogged the glass. “See […]

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Kean University 2017, The Network

Dream Girl

“Let’s go to our happy place.” Mommy would say when Daddy’s voice began to hit a certain octave–somewhere between a beastly bellow and a rumbling growl. It bounced off bone. Broke bone–when a slur accompanied it. Sometimes when it didn’t. Mommy told the nurses I was clumsy–a topsy, turvy tot falling head over teapot. Lost in my own little dream land. The nurses never looked as convinced as Mommy did. Hospitals were frequent but transient haunts, us hollow-eyed phantasms in advance mourning for […]

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