Ethel

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Ethel

Ethel

hell raiser.jpeg — Hellraiser

by
Annmarie O’Connell
Annmarie O'Connell's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Sixth Finch, Juked, Room Maga- zine, Verse Daily, Slipstream, SOFTBLOW, Vinyl Poetry, Thrush, Escape Into Life, 2River View and many other wonderful journals. She is the author of four collections of poetry. Annmarie works on a Mobile Crisis Response team and currently lives on the south side of Chicago with her partner & two dogs & two sons. She is very excited about being 10 weeks away from graduating as a clinical mental health counselor. Also, she loves you.

from Hellraiser

My uncle says

(for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford)

She’s just a day over five but she’s worth $100. He Drags me. The room goes black. Slapped.
My skin falls away from my bones. He cuts
into my righteous body like a long knife stabbing white paper. I don't feel
a thing. I shake then split. From way down here
his mouth looks thick and old as a Bible. He spits
in my ugly little face. I run and run
in place. He don't worry too much
about nothing busting open.
Everything gets beat down in this room but the door.
He says if I try that nonsense again, I’ll never be like them other girls.
Girls with church dresses and red balloons worth as much as love. This is just what it’s like pinned at the waist. Don’t worry about
what happens after,
I’m alive in the next life. I
ain’t it.