Jennifer’s Body  

By Ruby Ferris 

We let the good bitch hold the knife

                          while the bad bitch watches;

No one yells 

            and neither knows our ciphers'; 

The cake is cut 

               just as they remember ; how to speak. 

                 The world is a good place. Georgia good bitch is growing 

                switches in her garden cut; the foreheads at facelift height and 

                cut the hopes when they become violent cut ; Georgia when 

                a younger girl is born 

                and floods the garden ; with her pacifist white ; (a blade in the sun) ; 

               as it cuts through Georgia ; and she becomes a cadaver. 

             The world is a good place. Georgia good bitch is in therapy 

            so that one day ; she might become a violet ; soiled in violet ; that she might 

           regrow a violet ; over the bodies she witnessed on the internet. 

           Georgia’s therapist informs her that ; the bodies aren’t real ; because 

           bombs sent to heaven ; and there is no God ; so there cannot 

           be a heaven to store cadavers; 

           then, Georgia realizes she has no home to return to ; 

                                      only the garden 

          (Georgia goes home ; to the bombs in her garden. 

           blindness looks like oleander ; when the fruits of Georgia’s labor; 

           take her to hell) 

          We hold Georgia’s hand until ; 

                                    we encase it in epoxy; we underwear her in blue; so that the plastic 

                                    doesn’t cover what we love to rot, more like 

                                    an orchid than a violet. more like a woman, 

                                    than a person, 

                                   (at least silent) 

                                   and working in the garden. 

               The world is a good place. and not at all hell. Jennifer is born ;

              and sprouts powder fresh;  from Georgia’s remains; in a garden ; 

              that we’ve sold for land;. The juice of the earth ; we know ; 

              is worth the weight of a fingernail ; and the breath of a cadaver.. ; 

                             Jennifer is a dog and a cat ; a girl and a bitch ; plastic and fossil;

             better than Georgia, that’s for sure. Georgia has no children ; 

             the perfect weapon ; divorced from its own flowering; 

            she ; never metastasized ; only 

           carried around; the badness of insemination ; 

                                                 Oh, Georgia, 

         if only you knew that every allowance you made ; every 

         pound of flesh ; made you the vector; 

         for another man’s cancer; 

         and your bones became bullets in another man’s war; and your words; 

         became switches; and your trees and their switches; 

                          were made into ash. 

        Jennifer believes in personal and national sovereignty. 

Jennifer bad girl; emerges 

                from the hole; ensuring, ; her calcification is never too much; for you 

                to penetrate. 

                                   (Unlike you, Georgia, Jennifer knows ; to keep the men working ; 

                                    We should convince them to penetrate the factories; their own 

                                    progeny and communities; in penetration; 

                                    they dig a perfect hole leading to hell; where you are; 

                                    so they, again, ; can penetrate You)

       In this good world Jennifer ; never prays, but always hopes. Dead children

      are; never her fault; since she can’t remember making them dead; 

      and when she inherits the memory; of making them dead, (Georgia;

      she goes to your therapist for it) 

                                    and it’s diagnosed with ; a cakelike mania. An auxiliary condition; 

                    made possible by her perfection; 

                                   an empathy; discharged quartz; 

                                    to be broken open and; displayed on our mantle,. 

       The world is a good place. Men invite her over to the world. 

       Quickly ; Quickly ; they swap the screen. First, it was little children; 

       In a way we have never seen them; without half a body. Is Jennifer; 

       supposed to ignore this? The question ; makes her realize she is Bad; since; 

      men skin her; when she leaves them or; 

                      notices. 

                                  (The skin; a God ; or a lesser fertilizer…) 

       Men stain the mattress for Jennifer ; like the middle ; of her future cadaver; 

       though, still, ; she remembers what she first saw. 

                              (How many deaths are equal to hers?) 

      Men go to war for Jennifer. Her gratitude ; a wilted violet ; 

      isn’t good enough for any grave ; she she preserves it in epoxy; and ; 

      gauges her eyes.  ; 

                           (she intends to give the gauged body ; to little children) 

                           (and it isn’t enough) 

      In this good world Jennifer; is blind before she makes herself blind; 

      and she is a flower of peace; a symbol; to advocate peace; 

      for future Jennifers. She doesn’t think; about becoming a cadaver. ; though ; 

      at the end of her life;                   it does occur;                the consumption; 

      a reclusive carnivore ;                 and how it ate a hole through her heart; 

     and left her with many meals ; and 

     many therapy sessions ; and 

    many blankets in a soulless bedroom ; and 

    many homes endowed to her parents ; and 

    many excuses for 

why 

                         Jennifer shouldn’t die for the lives already stolen ; in lieu of hers, 

why 

                         Jennifer should live in epoxied death 

why

                       Jennifer should regard; such a suffocation as eternal warmth; 

because 

                       If Jennifer remains nonviolent and ; 

                                                    contained within herself; 

                                                                   she can end up as lucky as Georgia; shot 

                                                                    softly to hell;

                                                                    and bled; until gracefully empty. ; her skin; 

                                                                    the sharpest most perfect; 

                                                                    pacified white.