Jessie Demone is a graphic designer and professor of design. She is currently pursuing her Master of Arts - Integrated Studies, focusing on creativity and information sciences. With two kids and a third on the way, her patient husband is greatly looking forward to her graduation. Needless to say, life is busy, but wonderful.

In the house on the corner

Where the lines cross

By the broken window

The breeze blocked by a sheet

She sits.

On a brown woven couch

Framed by walls painted with smoke

Flies dance on a flickering bulb.

There is blood on the ceiling

Rorschach patterns reveal the past

Ashtrays overflow

Fireworks burst into the sky

She missed the vein, again.

Back Story

My dad stopped by the other day and told me what was going on with his best friend, and family friends of ours. His oldest daughter had disappeared, abandoning her son, six or seven years ago. She was an alcoholic who was using drugs and working as a sex worker to feed her addictions. No one had been able to help her and, as of late, no one had heard from her.

Then without warning her mother received a call, saying that she had just given birth to a baby. The hospital had called child services when blood tests found meth and crack in the baby’s system. Her parents were looking for ways to navigate the situation and ensure that their grandson would be taken care of (likely by them).