Rummaging through the toy room for a childhood gone by
unlocks a memory film scroll inside my head:
it rolls out;
like an endless red carpet
leading us back–
to our infant past.
With a flickering crackle, the memory unravels, starring
pink-trimmed, blonde-haired Barbie dolls living in
whole universes we created at the drop
of a head. Yes.
In shrieking delight, we snapped the dolls’ necks, nibbled
their small hands and feet,
we adorned their plastic-sheen bodies
with pencils every colour of the rainbow.
Grotesque, disfigured, they became the anti-heroes
of our little worlds, existing bodily
in the face of manufactured perfection, defying
the adult world’s rules for woman.
Cut – credits roll in. One name repeated
on the dark screen.
Thank you, sister,
for telling the monsters in me
to come out and play.
You can find more of Jessica’s work on our website or on Instagram @jessicalzzz
Edited by Harshita