by Kristen Field

She married Reeves McCullers twice.
Divorced him twice. Which decision
carries more weight?

He told her on their first wedding night
that he had slept with one of her friends.

Still, that fractured marriage is used
to question her desires, the lack of proof
and intensity of her obsessions arranged
into a picture of unknowing frigidity
as if there’s no way she could have been
wanted by the women she wanted
and wanted to be – laid bare
by therapy notes made
available to the public.
                                    What a betrayal

even in death. There’s always a reason
to doubt the validity of an experience
you cannot see. Historian-critics
wonder why she wouldn’t have
spoken of this short-lived tryst more widely
if it had really happened – as if
they’ve never felt the sting
                                     of disbelief.

Kristen Field is a queer, non-binary writer who grew up in Melbourne, Australia. She’s a graduate of Northwestern’s dramatic writing program and her work can be found in Hayden’s Ferry Review‘s Summer 2024 Web Issue, Qu Lit Mag, and Theatre Masters’ Take Ten Vol. 3, among other presses. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Western Michigan University and working as the Drama Editor at Third Coast Magazine.