“And as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Guilt in Obedience
Casey Gilfillan The guilt wraps around like a chain necklace. Thick cords, metal spiraling and woven around my throat, applying pressure enough to allow the passage of breath. The clasp is just beyond my reach, my hands aimlessly reach out instead of back and they find themselves pressed together, craving that divine path. Oh to…
Keep readingStuck
Casey Gilfillan Steeped in the hesitant depths of my own wait,My hands remain still, hugged by the thick, fossilizingMaterial of the atmosphere. My mouth does not move, itWas saying something to you. I don’t remember what that is now. Bound to this subversion, I cannot let go.The hands will not let go, how can I…
Keep readingIn Spite of Meaninglessness
Casey Gilfillan There is a double-edged sword that lives halvedThrough me. One blade juts crudely out of myChest, broad and bulky, always in the way,I am cutting myself at every turn. Covered in my own dried blood, it guides me withCopper luminescence to my near-deathEach time. It serves one purpose, to remind meThat I am…
Keep readingThe Bride! as Propaganda for the Male Loneliness Epidemic
Casey Gilfillan *SIGNIFICANT PLOT SPOILERS MENTIONED* ☨ On Sunday night, Mat and I went to the theater and saw The Bride! Before booking, neither of us knew much about the premise aside from the Frankenstein association. My primary takeaway from this film is a question fueled by indignation – why did Maggie Gyllenhaal do that…
Keep readingQuarantine
Casey Gilfillan A sadness accompanies, drifting along like a shadow cast behind. The days closing in like jagged teeth of a chewing mouth, swift and terminal to light. The melancholy navigates, the winter brings me to center. It cleanses in the way of a cold fright, rejuvenates like a defibrillator. My body wallows, my mind…
Keep readingStatic
Casey Gilfillan Walking and aching, I drag this corpse ofMemory, this console of flesh to whichI assign no purpose. What a waste, toResign it complacent and confine itTo ignorance not with intent but harm. It breathes but does not know another, itThinks but sinks deeper into the wet clayOf time that cakes and cracks and…
Keep readingAddendum to Subjectivity (of Law and Being)
Casey Gilfillan I recently published a short piece discussing the meaning and vitality of rules that are not followed, transgression that is not met with consequence. To summarize briefly, words and laws mean nothing if some can override them with impunity. These things, intangible concepts of civil contract, only contain the meaning we bestow upon…
Keep readingExistentialist Thought on the Subjectivity of Rights
Casey Gilfillan How does the existentialist cope with the collapse of society? She doesn’t – she is validated in a way that she didn’t necessarily hope to be. The boiled down, husk and bones of the philosophy is the position that existence precedes essence. This means that your life is defined by the choices and…
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Femme Fatalism 