|
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. Comments are closed.
|