This week's poem is written by Rachel Wiley, our very own Poetry Curator. Once you read this, you will inevitably want her to take your money, so here's the link to buy her latest book. xoxo (Christine)
Poem for Susan “Boomer” Jenkins
(From the show Wentworth)
And like a punch to the side of the head
there she is,
everything I have worked my whole fat life to never be
embodied
on screen
Susan “Boomer” Jenkins is
a goon
fat and loud
a graceless villain
unkempt and unbothered by the revulsion no one bothers to smuggle past her.
Susan “Boomer” Jenkins shakes people down for their revulsion
and brews the finest prison grog from it.
Susan “Boomer” Jenkins is
all fight
no flight
has never been weightless enough for flight
only dense enough for brute force
for ruin
for destruction
and she plays to this strength
Doesn't really know how not to
What unsettles me most about her is the obscene way that she wants
open mouthed and unreasonable
spilling onto everything
If I have wasted my life attempting to cinch in anything more than my body
it has been my wanting
for fear of it looking like a delusional appetite
on a body already appointed the mascot of greed.
Susan “Boomer” Jenkins
cries an ugly cry,
a blotchy faced angry wail for her wants
tantrums for someone to stay
someone to fight for her
someone to run into her wanting with their own wanting
for her to be the source of a want as hungry as her own
for someone to see the softness her bulk is capable of
the sweetness in her cloying
and in this Susan “Boomer” Jenkins
is my own sloppy heart
a greasy haired beast,caged,
longing for something to float gently down into her favor
so she will not have to drag it struggling to her chest
just once
