The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 3/23/09 (warning: very graphic language; NSFW; NSF minors)

[BlueIris]

"Child Beater"

Outside, the rain, pinafore of gray water, dresses the town,
and I stroke the leather belt,
as she sits in the rocking chair,
holding a crushed paper cup to her lips.
I yell at her, but she keeps rocking;
back, her eyes open, forward, they close.
Her body, somehow fat, though I feed her only once a day,
reminds me of my own just after she was born.
It's been seven years, but I still can't forget how I felt.
How heavy it feels to look at her.

I lay the belt on a chair
and get her dinner bowl.
I hit the spoon against it, set it down
and watch her crawl to it,
pausing after each forward thrust of her legs
and when she takes her first bite,
I grab the belt and beat her across the back
until her tears, beads of salt-filled glass, falling,
shatter on the floor.

I move off. I let her eat,
while I get my dog's chain leash from the closet.
I whirl it around my head.
O daughter, so far, you've only had a taste of icing,
are you ready now for some cake?

~Ai

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. thank you for posting the NSFW/minors

I may have to give these a miss.

[BlueIris]

4. Well, for the record, this is probably the most upsetting of the bunch.

I'm not about traumatizing my readers, after all.

[Droopy]

2. I don't know what would drive a person to be so cruel

Did you hear about that guy in Australia? He kept his daughter locked in the basement of their home for something like 40 years and physically and sexually abused her. He had 7 children by her. I don't understand how it is possible for people like that to exist.

[DS1]

3. Austria

:)

[BlueIris]

5. What I admire about Ai's writing is her ability to look unflinchingly into the minds

of sociopaths, pedophiles and murderers. Someone has to do it, and if a poet is going to attempt it, she might as well do it with accuracy.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. She is so spot on, one wonders if she is writing of her own

experiences.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. My dear BlueIris...

My God, graphic.

Almost too much to read...

Brutal stuff...

I could not write like this...

[ogneopasno]

8. I find nothing redemptive about this poem.

And I don't like the writing.

[BlueIris]

9. Thanks for sharing!

The warnings are in the subject line for posters like you.

[ogneopasno]

12. I've read explicit poems that spoke to me and were good and had something to say.

To me, this poem does none of these things.

[RetroLounge]

10. Ai is some strong poetry, and disturbing

She goes where very few, if any, go, and takes chances with dramatic monologues.

Very strong stuff...

RL

[ThomCat]

11. Oh hell.

:cry:

The only thing that would make me wish that there was really a god is the wish that there was really a hell for people like that.

Except, how fucked up in the head must that mother be? And what kind of abuse might she have endured to get her to that point? Ending abuse is the priority, not adding more.

This is incredibly well written. It is at the same time incredibly outrageous and very plausible and realistic. I hope this has been widely published, and has helped recruit a lot of support for efforts to find and help battered and abused children.

:cry: