Reading Objects 2019: Student Edition

Jillian Tiberio

Undergraduate- Creative Writing

Class of 2022

BEHIND THE SCENES

ACT I

Scene I
A young girl in a white dress,
the way a body will contort
to please the people consuming it.
The way her feet bleed.
The way her skin catches the light.
The way it gleams, gleams.
The way it holds onto the dirt
of the unswept floor.

Scene II
A young girl in a white dress,
dressed up, first day of school.
The sun a spot in an open blue sky
blinding violent white against
soft fresh snow.
Small fingers drawing smiling faces
on frosted bus windows
watching as the cold reclaims it.

Scene III
A young girl in a white dress,
which falls below her knees for Sunday service.
Her mother tugging the hem lower, lower,
lower still.
The church towering tall over head
insides like a corner store selling expired food.
Across the street, a run down house,
old metal shot, dented, speckled, marked
by boys learning new ways to bruise.

ACT II

Scene I
A girl in a white dress,
stumbling between stumbling bodies,
blisters building beneath blood red heels.
Innocent fabric stained
holding on to small bits of skin.
Skin glistening in neon.
Skin sticky with beer.
Skin sticky from the unknown
rough hand
lifting the frayed hem.

Scene II
A girl in a black dress,
white flowers shooting up
blooming around her like wings.
The odd memory of
the scent of fresh flowers
and embalming fluid
together in the same breath.

Scene III
A girl in a white dress,
small enough on some to be a shirt,
worn on another body first.
The way the sun streams in.
The way the shadows from the tree
dance, slowly,
the warm morning waltzing across her
damp cheek.
The way the light reveals the bruises.
The way the light reveals the comfort
of a bed holding only her, now.
The room empty of anything but herself.

ACT III

Scene I
A woman in a white dress,
calling self ‘girl’ again when the door slams
and she hides in her own body.
The way the gold frame on her bedside table
still glistens gold.
The way she must remind herself of this.
The bed for two with room to spare.
The house clean now.

Scene II
A woman in a white dress,
hand holding smaller hand,
the hand of a young girl.
Held but not consumed.
She pulls her along,
watching small feet tip toe over
cracks in the sidewalk.
The way a mother listens.
The way a daughter asks to do,
to speak,
to dance.

Scene III
A young girl in a white dress,
the way a body will contort
to please the people consuming it.
The way her feet bleed.
The way her skin catches the light.
The way it gleams, gleams.
The way it holds onto the dirt
of the unswept floor.