Feminist Horror as Dystopia

After Coralie Fargeat's film The Substance

  1.  

You made a Dystopia of our anthropocene

—perhaps little had to be made—

—for millenia made what You moulded—

—running backwards from 4

—counting down the months

—or weeks             —or days

—or is it only hours we have left?

 



  1.  

i know You well enough to see

the repression—the pain—

 

      in your inner city—

masked so well the masses go blind

—placated by smiles and—smothered

affection—                You say it would be bet-

      –ter—if we had never met—

yet

You are not ready to let go

complete-

      -ly

of the love You know—

the You-

      -me—



 

  1.  

You split in two

—like old and young—

but your split is of 

 —You—

‘respect the balance’

       —seems a mercy—

next to—

        ‘NOW YOU CHOOSE’

—and

  take my best friend’s definition of ‘Man’

          —a predator who takes what he wants

—and

  a Feminist Horror

   —is less horrifying than

a Feminist becoming a Man—

 

 

  1.  

i head down from the roof—of the roe street carpark—

fairy lights disappear—behind metal doors—

i ride the lift—plummet—to the ground floor

 —my car is on level two—

plummet into a melatonin induced—antipsychotic

             driven—sleep

for—here drugs are required for beauty

and—beauty is a definition i could not write

  —i wouldn’t understand after all—

 i’m autistic

so–the officials prescribe me—The Substance—leads

                          —define—                                                   me off to sleep

but—in sleep

     i dream of You—

Kayla May Browne is a queer autistic poet and novelist living in Perth. She completed a Bachelor of Philosophy at UWA, majoring in English and Literary Studies and Classics and Ancient History with a first class Honours in English and Literary Studies. Her creative Honours thesis focused on constructing an autistic voice. She wrote her first novel in 2016 and followed it up with two others to make a trilogy, self-published in 2021. She has since finished two more novels. 

Subscribe to our newsletter To Recieve Updates

    The Latest
    • Matchbox by Usawa October‘25 Issue

      This edition of Matchbox by Usawa explores the patterns, customs, and structures

    • The Intimate Affair Of Mortality And Disgust

      A haunting meditation on death’s intimacy, despair, and allure

    • The Room Of A Parallel World

      Sohini Sen’s The Dandelions Have It blends nature, mind, and oneness

    • The Book of Death

      A child’s surreal grief: shame, scream, and haunted theatrical silence

    You May Also Like
    • Two Poems By Shanta Acharya

      Those who have no land, no home, washed in like debris on a beach, imagine

    • About women writing through bodies by Gurpreet Kaur

      the years of growing up were spent in finding ways to belong and belonging in

    • A Quest for Identity By Vidhan

      Despite his broad grin of familiarity, I did not recognise the face Slightly