Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Twisted Velvet Chains
    Twisted Velvet Chains
    Twisted Velvet Chains
    Ebook117 pages25 minutes

    Twisted Velvet Chains

    By Jessica Bell

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Twisted Velvet Chains is a collection of poems which follows the experiences of a young woman growing up with a bipolar, drug addicted, Gothic musician mother. Each poem represents specific moments of their life that embrace vivid rich imagery, and illustrate the turmoil of emotions both experience while together. The collection is

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVine Leaves Press
    Release dateOct 1, 2016
    ISBN9781925417432
    Twisted Velvet Chains

    Read more from Jessica Bell

    Related to Twisted Velvet Chains

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Diary of My Leg Hair

      Dec 8, 2022

      Diary of My Leg Hair
      21 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2023

      Jester-necked pile of ideasfattening by the cutting board.I have known the summer wall,it says slowly. The hillside facessouth into the valley.Dew on the tomato plants.Anything that grows, swarms,bunches itself against a stayand cannot stay. The vine

      4 min read

    • Article

      Notes From A Nothing

      Feb 14, 2020

      Notes From A Nothing
      13 min read

    • Article

      Seven Poems

      May 1, 2023

      There was a boy even stranger than I waswho’d call me in the eveningto see if I’d come to Scouts. Something in mehesitated. Then one morning during eighth grade English we got hall passesand did it in a stall in the bathroomtaking turns over the john

      3 min read

    • Article

      Foxes

      Jun 15, 2019

      What’s worth happening happens in deep woods. Or so my daughter tells me. Her plotlines: In the deep woods someone is chasing, someone else is getting hacked. Hatchets are lifted, brought downdowndown. Men stutter blood onto snow. A cast of animals—s

      17 min read

    • Article

      What The Magpie Says

      Oct 16, 2022

      What The Magpie Says
      8 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Sep 1, 2019

      Why is it drowning? Why unpinnedfloaty locks, inset with fallenleaf&filth as if any buoyant trash were jewel? Why painted pale—not pale and bloated? Why more adoredminnow-lipped than when she breathed air, spoke? Why love wesuch dank ophelia? Why rat

      3 min read

    • Article

      Longer on Moon

      Sep 22, 2022

      Longer on Moon
      19 min read

    • Article

      Dark Tales

      Dec 2, 2021

      Dark Tales
      6 min read

    • Article

      Fragrant

      Jan 18, 2022

      Fragrant
      5 min read

    • Article

      Sexual Tension

      Jun 5, 2023

      Sexual Tension
      13 min read

    • Article

      Burn Bright

      Apr 12, 2024

      Burn Bright
      3 min read

    • Article

      Blood And Water

      Nov 3, 2022

      Blood And Water
      7 min read

    • Article

      Wallflower

      Sep 8, 2019

      Wallflower
      2 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jul 1, 2022

      -ina: This suffix is used as an independent name,but doesn’t your little one deserve more?—a baby name origins website as in, I spent my playground days gasping endless into a machineas in, my elders blessed me with a second name, to ward off spirits

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cul-de-Sac

      Dec 1, 2021

      That old rage for order: how my father drove a square mouthed mower over-and-back, over-and-back, each row of neatly trimmed grass cut just like he told his barber: boy’s short, regular. O pioneer, taming this joke bit of prairie, no bindweed or dog

      5 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems by Brenda Shaughnessy

      Dec 15, 2017

      Watching little Henry, six, scoop up blueberriesand shovel them into his mouth, possessed. I’m so glad I brought blueberries—wish my kidscould/would eat them. Cal can’t; Simone won’t. Henry’s sisters, Lucy & Jane, took turns feeding eachother goldfis

      3 min read

    • Article

      Three Triptychs

      Jan 1, 2021

      Woke to the “meanerror,” of birds squawkinginside the blue-greyblackpolyphonies of whathappens when we losethe terminologyto determine how badthings really are. Wasthere no way to puncturethe agonizing filmthat kept us all corralledhere? I looked thr

      3 min read

    • Article

      Elegy for the Last Male Northern White Rhino

      Jun 1, 2019

      Poor Breton, still trying to installa burning murmur in our mindswhich causes of course problemsat security like what doesn’t? Fruitis explosive. So’s any kind of fluid,especially tears, especially amniotic,especially salamanders. In previous centuri

      1 min read

    • Article

      Named After the Animal

      Oct 13, 2020

      Named After the Animal
      18 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jan 1, 2024

      I wake from a dreamin which I’m speaking coarselyto my daughter who has taken offher clothes in the middleschool parking lot and is washingher body in ritual preparationto go onto the internet and find outif the rumor she heard abouther favorite YouT

      3 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jan 1, 2024

      I would have booked her departureby overnight express buther leaving was by slow trainmaking all the stops. Another woman over 1,001 nights expressed byunfinished stories her silent plea—More time.Pulling out all the stops sheconjured until a king’s

      3 min read

    • Article

      Dear Frankie

      Oct 3, 2021

      Dear Frankie
      18 min read

    • Article

      Announcing The winners Of Our FLASH CONTEST

      Feb 29, 2020

      I sever the first two fingers of my left hand on a Tuesday. They fall to the ground at my feet, causing a momentary confusion as I wonder what tree has dropped this odd fruit. Then I see the crescent scar left behind by a fish hook and know that thes

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Portrait

      Mar 1, 2018

      I WAS BORN almost completely deaf, and by the time I was seven I had already become a prisoner to my education. In the morning, I had speech therapy and tutoring with Mr. Bishop. We sat at my family’s long dining-room table, which was always covered

      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Twisted Velvet Chains

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Twisted Velvet Chains - Jessica Bell

      bipolar tongues

      Excuses abuse trust

      she said

      Mummy said

      my mother said

      and my mum said

      They all said

      Excuses

      abuse trust

      It was

      the sanest thing

      she ever said

      because they all

      said

      it.

      It came from her,

      not them;

      not the ones

      that spoke in

      bipolar tongues …

      part I

      bird poop spun by rumpelstilzchen

      You give me a stool to stand on

      so we can wash dishes together.

      Chatter—Belinda said—chatter

      Daddy said—chatter—blah blah

      blah—stutter—What you think?

      Very first time you ask my

      opinion, and I blank out. It turns

      into a habit—this blanking; Blanco;

      blacking out. Suds between fingers;

      foam. Whoever said you couldn’t

      hold air? Look, Mummy! You want

      a cappuccino? I offer her a tea cup

      full of fluffy bubbles—the one with

      blue birds flying round the rim, on

      flecks of gold—bird poop spun by

      Rumpelstilzchen. Eek! What’s that?

      Mummy drops a saucer on the

      kitchen floor. Daddy hung a rubber

      tarantula by the window in a vine.

      She thought it was real. Is he nuts?

      I guess we all are around Mummy.

      doctor, doctor, darling, sweetie, cuddle, cuddle everything

      on bed—stuffed toys

      —sick—Doctor

      Doctor—feed them jelly

      —just like on TV

      injection—sewing needle

      —masking tape

      invention—consolations

      —Darling, Sweetie

      when they wince

      —cuddle, cuddle

      tell them; here, here.

      You’re just going to feel

      a little discomfort, Dear.

      Chop!

      out

      infected splinter

      too afraid

      to reveal it

      cover it

      with sleeve for weeks.

      Shh …

      better than home

      Strawberry ice cream and dessert dirt clog nose

      Putty filling useless organ—oxygen apertures

      Masks fake smiles, eyebrows black—thick slugs

      Move!

      Dry weed tufts tickle ear—wisps of smell with sound

      Bruised flesh round upper arm—Chinese lunch time burn

      My excuse to save Mummy.

      vibrations

      Vibrations whistle—

      Rattle. Hum.

      Lamp shade buzz.

      Same words sung.

      Over. Over.

      E-string strum—

      Repeat. Repeat.

      Ooh-ooh. Ah-ahs.

      Four-track mixer

      clicking, winding—

      Guitar cable

      Crackle. Crackle.

      Amplifier

      Wah-wah. Wow.

      Daddy’s thrill.

      Mummy’s pill.

      Fake pregnancy

      Stroke mah belly

      Bicycle helmet

      under nighty

      Sing to it, teddy—

      La, la. Ha, ha.

      Mummy singing

      in my womb.

      the blob

      Nude balls; marbles

      glistening in the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1