Anti-Heroin Chic
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

​

9/27/2020

Epigenetics by Shannon Frost Greenstein

Picture
                           Ffion Atkinson CC



EPIGENETICS

Jennifer Connelly said it in
The Labyrinth                 
It’s not fair!
But when she sold her soul 
for powdered dopamine in Requiem 
for a Dream  
we forgot that little girl 
so enamored with David Bowie’s codpiece;
who really didn’t understand a thing about unfair.  

They say Holocaust
Survivors
have DNA permanently altered by 
trauma
that their grandchildren’s genes bear
this damage, this evolutionary hiccough;
the very blueprint of life irrevocably marred
even generations later by the
evil
in the world.

My own
children
playing happily on the floor;
is their DNA free from
evidence of my childhood
suffering,
intergenerational trauma stopped in its tracks?
or did the CPTSD warp my genes so much 
that my great great great great great great
grandchildren
will house these blemished double helixes 
like a scar?

It’s not fair
that innocence is soiled by events
before it even comes to be;
and it’s not fair
that I was abused
when I should have been allowed to grow
and it’s not fair
that David Bowie died
before he was ready.

But life is still a marvel
and my children are a gift
To find joy
ecstasy
when things are unfair
is a life well-lived.
And this will not end with a Requiem.
​

Because our song is an anthem.

​
Picture
Shannon Frost Greenstein resides in Philadelphia with her children, soulmate, and cats. She is the author of “More.”, a forthcoming poetry collection from Wild Pressed Books. Shannon is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, a Contributing Editor for Barren Magazine, and a former Ph.D. candidate in Continental Philosophy. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, X-R-A-Y Lit Mag, Cabinet of Heed, Ellipsis Zine, Lunate Fiction, trampset, and elsewhere. Follow Shannon at shannonfrostgreenstein.com or on Twitter at @mrsgreenstein. She comes up when you Google her.

Marielle link
10/27/2020 03:12:08 pm

Thank you for sharing this.

Deb link
10/27/2020 09:52:52 pm

So powerful!!


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    December 2024
    November 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.