EPISODE 1
The J Girls Get High
(1997)
Monologue: Jocelyn
INT. SCHOOL CAFETERIA â DAY. JOCELYN stands in an empty cafeteria wearing a red tube top and a silver miniskirt. Posters hang on the wall behind her: âReduce, Reuse, Recycleâ; the âHang in Thereâ kitten; a diagram of a cartoon girl that illustrates proper skirt length and notes, âAll hair colors must come directly from Godâ; a flyer for Modesty Club, on which someone has drawn a vulva.
Less Is More
We fast through lunch & pocket pills at recess.
Gold letters on our gym-class asses crown us
each a Princess.
School nuns scold, so we dig
little graves in our minds & they fill them
with etiquette. Bet theyâll better us yet.
In church,
our voices rise, a sour choir of spit & pride. We stir
the nunsâ words in our mouths till they curdle:
less is more.
At home, our mean mothers pour
Suave into Avon bottles, stacking dimes as we lie
like strips of jerky on our roofs.
We tan. We turn.
We cure ourselves & wonder: How far down
our throats can these new woman hands go?
Together we trace rows of looping red Xs & Os
into our arms with paring knives. We carve our skin
to the bone,
becoming instruments of lessâ
but we make it up in excess: rhinestone eyelids,
two-inch acrylics, hair frosted in three tones.
Each hotbox ride with garage boys is a fantasy
of proving the nuns right:
we see the road stop
like a cartoon cliff & weâre driving on air till
someone looks down & we drop & thatâs all
weâve wanted.
To hell with other kidsâ futures,
our parentsâ tired rising above.
A new high:
the long whistle of wind like a lullaby
against the slicked reeds of these whittled bodies
as we fall glittering to the bottom.
Monologue: Jodie
EXT. CHURCH FESTIVAL â DAY. JODIE sits at a picnic table. JENNIFER sits next to her, eating cotton candy and nodding. Beside the table is a garbage can overflowing with paper plates, soda cans, cigarette packs, and half-eaten funnel cakes. Dried nacho cheese trails down the side of the can, and a few yellow jackets hover.
Wifebeaters
A shirtless rack makes a cozy hang for beatings
if a girlâs hard-pressed or steamed. Words get worn
this way: at festivals, we tuck our violence in
our bras with cash for cigarettes and pretzels.
Neon sparks in spacious skullsâgirlness is a gas
to tap, so we trap its heat against our breasts
and vent little whines when the Zipper cage flips us.
Whipped fright froths our kid lips, and we run
our mouths at the carnie hand-humping his lever
below. He holds us catawampus to better glimpse
our tits while shouts burst bright on blacktop sky.
For future wives, there is only coming down
from here, so we best burn serotonin slow
and tamp fissures with new clothes. Fashion
schools us: a slut can wear her insides out,
but sleevelessness is also cloak. Walmart magic:
black straps like tongues ventriloquize sex
into cotton undershirtsâbut if a boy sees
his own skivvies, it may be triggered fists. Still,
we tempt a hit, prepared to temper it with sheer force
of this half-flash. Soap wonât wash the bullâs-eyes off
our backsides, so why not don the darts ourselves?
Mimicryâs a prizeless game, but anyway,
the board is always riggedâeven girls know that.
Monologue: Jennifer
INT. CHURCH â DAY. JENNIFER stands in front of a marble altar and large wooden crucifix, holding a bag of communion hosts and drinking from a silver wine goblet.
Prayer for Effacement
O my fear-snuffer, my sensitive sigh-huffer,
my infernal grace-breather, my sin-sucker,
my most holy vampire, my tawdry tear-drinker,
my gory grief-strainer, my pulpy vice-eater,
my dull mind-cleaver, my gentle heart surgeon,
my acid bath, my quick-drying limewash,
my most patient primer, my tongue-scrape,
my meticulous airbrush, my aerial light box,
my traveling sunspot, my beautiful cataract,
my personal snow machine, my salt-n-plow,
my spongy ink-blotter, my stack of sorrys,
my emergency stain stick, my cup of bleach,
my benevolent eraserâmake me an eternal
thumbprint, your most stubborn spot of grease.
Monologue: Jacqui
EXT. PLAYGROUND â DUSK. JACQUI sits on a lawn chair in the grass and holds a can of Natural Light, from which she never drinks, instead waving it around for emphasis.
Middling
At half past nine, this park is a palace
of teenage bombast & angst-gilded crime.
Too proud to be vandals, we hike & heel
half miles at a time. Into the woods we go,
packing spliffs & a beer & half a line
of this boyâs blow. He splits it all with me
because Iâm chill, though I know itâs because
I live uptown, straddling the tracks. His hands
flit & shimmer like ghosts around his face
as he r...