For Jackie
Tonight, she will sleep to climb
the stairs again.
Long brown hair falling down
her back as she runs up.
The boys are behind
her always,
long snakes winding
against and along the walls.
The door closes quickly;
she has gone in,
a snap of light
whipping across her face
before it’s sharp black and
they’ve gone in, too.
He was smashing,
she thought, and still,
every night,
there he is, smashing
into her across broken bottles,
her long brown hair
stuck to the liquid
pooling there.
Wishing to fall through
the floor but only going up,
always, always,
carried on snakes,
she glides up those stairs.
This dream is her broken record,
and she keeps breaking.
Tonight, she will sleep to climb
the stairs again.
Long brown hair falling down
her back as she runs up.
The boys are behind
her always,
long snakes winding
against and along the walls.
The door closes quickly;
she has gone in,
a snap of light
whipping across her face
before it’s sharp black and
they’ve gone in, too.
He was smashing,
she thought, and still,
every night,
there he is, smashing
into her across broken bottles,
her long brown hair
stuck to the liquid
pooling there.
Wishing to fall through
the floor but only going up,
always, always,
carried on snakes,
she glides up those stairs.
This dream is her broken record,
and she keeps breaking.
