Wednesday 1 May 2013

I'm sorry but I've witnessed what's under your suburban bruises

Awkword Paper Cut is a brand new online magazine.
Meg Tuite a class A writer and editor (for Connotation Press, The Santa Fe Literary Review and Used Furniture Review.)

For Awkword Paper Cut's inaugural issue Meg Tuite asked me for a collaboration.
Never worked with Meg before and always up for new inputs, so yes.

She send me this poem; I'm sorry but I've witnessed what's under your suburban bruises
A bleak & heavy piece. The kind of poetry that starts creeping out of the back of your head and then
pulls out a hammer and hits you straight into your face.

Sorry, but I’ve witnessed what’s under your suburban bruises
A heart beats through those t-shirts
you used to wear.

‘You Bite!’ in white letters on black
across your chest
when we had sex
in your basement
while your dad shattered dishes
in your kitchen

cursing slurs
at your mom
crouched in her pastel
nightdress

‘Chicago Bears’ jersey
blue with orange stripes on the shoulders
upstairs on the couch
you pass out
in my lap
your dad says
‘I’d like to be face down
in your crotch.’

‘Budweiser rips it’
faded red, white and blue
as I stare at the ceiling
in the basement

smacking fists
earsplitting
muffling an army of relatives
I’ve seen in your sneer

and your clumsy steps
wracked with
the ketchup of your family
embedded in your bloody eye
and swollen-gummed smirk

You kiss me
and then hold my arms down
rape the me of me
that doesn’t know me

Yeah, you dickered with me
over whose scars
shadowed
a creepier basement

I almost forfeited
to those
wooden, creaking steps
of yours
that paralyzed me
back in time

At least your’s
were chronic and amplified

my
hollow stairs
were carpeted

engulfed in plush
flesh that struggled
underneath a whisper
the family tree
was stifled
beneath

The reading she did of this poem was as powerful. Fun stuff to work with.
The track I've put her reading to is


Something in the combination of her words/voice and these sounds led me back to a movie I used in antother video, FF Coppola's 'Dementia 13'
I picked out a few scenes and faces and started editing. Looked for the right movements that I could feature as some kind of recurring visual chorus.
In the end I added a layer of lights and colours.

Anyways, check for yourself...and check the first issue of Awkword Paper Cut to.


words & voice: Meg Tuite
Concept, camera, editing & music: Swoon
footage: Dementia 13 (FF Coppola)

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