by Jessica Furtado

Investigation: Therapist’s Notes
(an erasure from Stephen King’s Carrie)


The victim of wild talent, we suspect
she was put into an extreme situation
of guilt and stress; an advent
of terrible events worn as a corsage.

Herself, a prayer;
her voice, a full-length mirror
bright with tea roses.

No one could understand
the brute courage it had taken
to leave herself open
to a creeping existence,
restless with tiredness or headache.

She kept waning, a strain
as if smiling inside
another’s body, forcing
her to run and run and run;
a terrific drain on the body’s resources.

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Jessica Furtado is a multi-passionate artist whose visual work has been featured in Grub Street, Muzzle Magazine, Waxwing, & elsewhere, and whose writing has appeared in Qwerty, Rogue Agent, & Stirring, among others. Jessica’s poetry was a finalist in Best of the Net (2020), and her debut chapbook, A Kiss for the Misbehaved (2023), is available from BatCat Press. To see what she’s up to next, visit Jess at jessicafurtado.com.