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The Imperfect Present

CULPABILITY by Carson Wolfe (United Kingdom)

9/29/2023

 
Beginning with a line from the Manchester Women’s Aid Pamphlet
on the Impact of Domestic Violence & Abuse on Children


Girls don’t become victims
just because they saw a parent
being abused. They become
victims by whatever colour
ignites a forest fire in California.
If the flare is pink, buy floral frills,
name her Daisy. Teach her how
to avoid being picked, woven
into a chain of missing girls
long enough to drape around
Venus. That’s where girls
are from. Otherworldly, headless
mannequins. All girls become
victims by age ten, take her
to H&M, watch her shrink
like the clothing options
available to her. Her dreams
obscured by a billboard
with Kylie Jenner’s face on.​

​If the flare is blue. Buy clothes
that climb mountains. Name him
Christopher after Columbus.
When preschool calls to report
he’s been lifting the skirts
of his classmates, laugh like father,
like son.
 When he drives women
to secluded spots on his video game,
turn a blind eye. When he grows 
taller than you, screw locks 
on every door. When you find 
the rape scene earmarked 
in The Fountainhead, blame 
libraries. When you notice
the blue pulp beneath 
his girlfriend’s concealer, 
blame the girl that made
a monster of your perfect son.





Carson Wolfe (they/them) is a Mancunian poet. They are New Writing North’s 2023 Debut Poetry Winner and have previously won awards from The Aurora Poetry Prize and the Button Video Contest. Their debut poetry pamphlet Boy(ish)Vest (2022) was praised by Dr Kim Moore as an ‘unforgettable, wild, risk-taking roller-coaster of a book’. Their work has appeared in Rattle, Fourteen Poems, Poetry by Chance (Button, 2023), and The Penn Review. Carson lives in Manchester with their wife and three children. You can find them at www.carsonwolfe.co.uk.

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