To Kill Your Darlings

Shey Catt

Oh

Darling,

Darling when I get you,

When I plunge my fingers through your skin

Oh Darling,

When I kill you.

Oh when you say your silly words

When they hum for the very first time

Oh Darling,

They sound beautiful,

Wonderful,

Divine.

Oh

But Darling,

When they sit

When they simmer,

Linger,

And age,

Darling as they rot

They

Begin to stink.

Oh Darling,

So sentimental

Of that time

So pure

Oh Darling,

They meant something

They used to

I’m sure.

Oh

But my Dear Dandy Darling,

I’ve kept your love letters

Too long

Oh Darling

I am sick

Nauseous from your songs

So Darling,

I must kill you.

Murk you,

Murder you,

And mill you,

For I have milked you

Far too long.

Oh

When I twist you

Shall death kiss you

And while I hate to see you go

I’ve blissed you

And I’ve blessed you

And I’ll miss you when you’re gone

Darling,

You’re not right anymore

You don’t fight anymore

For your place in my heart and mind

Oh

You’re not good anymore

I don’t think I should, anymore

Leave you where you are

Oh Darling,

I release you to the abyss

The careless world

Of flying fists

You’ll rip apart,

Depart,

And fly.

Soon you’ll evolve,

I hope you soar high.

But my Darling,

I must kill you,

Kiss your grave.

To make room

For the good,

The successes,

All of the hope,

That I’ve made.

Chloe Vilevac

Biography: Chloe is a multimedia artist and designer across all things liberal arts. They’re passionate about dabbling and being a forever amateur. She’s endlessly inspired by colorful and subversive pieces of art and writing, particularly portraiture and character studies, which is the center of most of their artwork.

Artist Statement: A piece inspired by Frankenstein, reflecting how I’ve often seen myself through others’ eyes: strange, uncanny, or easily misread–as someone who isn’t neurotypical. Adam’s wound references the moments when others have hurt me, yet his instinct to cradle his own hair and lingering in the sun speaks to the small and very people-centered comforts I still hold onto. The blood forming INRI was because this work felt faintly biblical, touching on the weight of religion and the expectations of my family or the “inevitable” and how empathy can easily become hurt, like in religious texts.

Shey Catt

Biography: Hello, I am Shey Catt, I’m a fourth year Secondary Education major and I have always loved writing. I experience the world through a creative lens, one filled with emotion and vulnerability. I love to feel, in every sense. Feeling is the most alive thing that we can experience, and with that, we make art in all senses of the craft. I, as an artist am very dedicated to myself and everything that I am, including human, including a feeler, including a woman, and a yearning woman at that.

Artist Statement: To Kill Your Darlings is a poem that dives into the vulnerability and intensity of ridding of something that you’ve worked so hard for, something you were in love with, but must let go of to grow yourself and your works. It is something that I, and many creators alike have struggled with. It is outgrowing your first love, saying goodbye to your childhood home, it is visiting your childhood pet’s grave.