No More Long Drinks Out of the Kitchen Sink
Reflections on The Better Sister and the quiet theater of women's work
When I was watching The Better Sister, a domestic thriller series starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks, I kept thinking sisters. What this world does to sisters. The trauma bonds, the fierce psychic tether, the telepathy, the blended identities.
It’s wild how often love and survival braid themselves together.
I found myself wondering, how many of us have been the ones who keep it together while quietly falling apart?
This poem is for those sisters.
No more long drinks out of the kitchen sink.
She has to package it Brush strokes broadly Not one to be snarky Not him in the hot seat Protect, confess it vaguely Up on the daily The world is her stage Every morning In the kitchen performing... It’s complacency It’s constraints on her energy Smiling Simmering Thanos in her fucking rings Fucking frustration And sucking in my devastation Running in desperation Born of a revelation It came to me softly, and I think No more long drinks out of the kitchen sink No more framing On fault lines It’s never in vain to rearrange It’s a bird It’s a plane It’s a spitting image of a story that holds no weight It was better on paper so I flattened into grace What a shame So I’m saying— Paint away Set a blaze Loose your lips for liberation Lose your grip Let us pray
So… what did you think of The Better Sister?
Failed to render LaTeX expression — no expression found