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Cesca Janece Waterfield
Anamnesis

Punctured at high speed, a water balloon explodes, and the water formerly contained by the membrane falls, and is unrecoverable. Even gravity does not alter the water’s shape until it has made much of its descent. All that remains are symbols requiring interpretation to suggest the physics and order of the sequence. After the wound, there is nothing that can be stitched together, save for a few scraps of limp latex. But piecing together a ruptured balloon would result in a false rondure. This is not unlike sifting through the potsherd of trauma. Linear narrative and chronological structure often fail to convey the subjective experience of suffering.
genesis of testimony
. itself
. another reality
About the writer:
Cesca Janece Waterfield graduated from McNeese State University with an MFA in Creative Writing. She is the author of three poetry collections and a forthcoming memoir. Her work has appeared in Map Literary, Scalawag, Writers Resist, Deep South Magazine, LUMINA, and many other publications.
Image: The Scream by Mikuláš Medek (1926-1974). No medium specified. No size specified. 1954. By free license via Eva Kosáková, heir to the copyright of Mikuláš Medek artworks.