Open Art Surgery (2014-16) processing trauma

#1

He squared off her circle with war games of words.

Now she’s a tsunami in motion

broken

broken

broken

 

#2 constructed construction

I am mirror, a surface.

I see and reflect.

Drawing you in,

I become.

 

I am construct, an assemblage.

I place and am placed.

Folding in on you,

I envelop.

 

I am sponge, a magpie

I take and am taken.

Absorbing others,

I write.

 

I am intervention, a happening

I disrupt and am disrupted.

Splintering your body,

I begin.

 

I am pain, a bruise

I bleed and am bled

Pulling you closer

I draw breath.

 

I am paper thin, lightweight

I free and am freed.

Darting through chaos

I destroy.

 

I am your comeuppance, your just desserts

I provoke and am provoked.

Striking you quickly

I take aim.

 

#3

when he came it was sudden sun-splashed and bright

outburst

azure light

demon-eyed

prick

when I de-faced it was desperate, self-inflicted and doomed

spliced night

fist punch

dead tight

cunt

 

#4 Detained / Contained

 my street heart

attacked me

sharply

 

#5 Suspect/Apprehended

Punch-hole psyche, face-off at shore

Square blue floor, magnolia wall.

Stripped-back body, police-line crossed

Handcuff suspect, identity lost.

red gash, bleeding

split lip, purple

ripped dress, dirty

bruised eye, swollen

rib pain, fractured

white hat, bloody

 

#6 He was the oasis in her demon, the diabolique­, a separatist hyphen in a syntax of lust, a corrosive reminder of love turned to dust.

 

#7  photos as evidence – high-street 

I’m colour correcting my bruises

Adjusting the red, green and blue

Tweaking the touch screen in daylight

Cropping my face in full view.

I’m choosing the contrast and paper

Checking the prints and the hue

Losing face to these strangers

These are the things I must do.

 

#8 Poems in a jar

I bled that night.

Dark spots descended, pooling on the pristine floor.

I knelt beside them and wept for my womb receding

for the annihilation of memories, wrapped around bodies, wrapped around impossible polemics.