Jessica Gray is a freshman at Endicott College in Beverly, MA.  She is currently studying two-dimensional studio art and is also minoring in music and creative writing.  One of her pieces is currently being displayed in a student show on campus.  The piece was part of a Graphic Novel workshop she participated in a few weeks ago.

This poem is inspired by Robert Pinksy’s Shirt and the infamous Triangle Factory fire, focusing on the women and men who jumped from the building to their demises.  The poem is meant to be relatable  to people who feel as though they are spiraling down.

Brittle Bones

Away from the masonry wall

he let her drop

and she fell fast,

the wind screaming

in her ears,

a howl

to a deaf moon.

She dropped fast, faster, and even faster.

Fingertips chilled and unable to thaw,

as the ground pulled her in.

Or maybe the sky pushed her down.

Spiraling into nothingness

and unable to see through wild tendrils,

biting her cheeks.

She fell blindly,

hoping the end,

the darkness,

wouldn’t sting like the tendrils or

turn her bones brittle

like the wind.

Or wring out her heart

and stab nodes in her brain

telling her what to do,

what to say,

what to think,

How to look.

The end, she hoped, would bring silence

And she would become the deaf moon

And her heart would no longer shudder in agony.

— Jessica Gray

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