Langsung ke konten utama

Psalter of Undone Girls

Book I: Of Hunger

Psalm I. The Starvation Game

She starved at the table of touch.

Every smile was rationed.

She learned to chew absence,

to swallow glances like crumbs.

The hunger taught her

that even neglect has calories.


Psalm II. The Mouth as Wound

The mouth opens for speech,

but bleeds instead.

Desire leaks, iron-tasting.

A kiss is just a suture failing.

What is voiced is not heard,

what is heard is not held.


Psalm III. Banquet of Absence

We sit around a feast of plates.

The cutlery gleams with nothing.

We praise the spread of air,

raise a toast to lack.

Our bellies groan like choirs,

our hollow becomes our hymn.


Psalm IV. The Body as Empty House

Her ribs are doorframes,
her lungs the dusty halls.
Every step echoes.
She lies in bed with drafts for companions,
the wallpaper peeling like memory.
Hunger is not only of the stomach,
but of the rooms no one enters.


Psalm V. Communion of Ash

They offered her bread
that dissolved into soot.
They poured her wine
that tasted of vinegar and stone.
Even the sacraments
were counterfeit nourishment.
Still, she ate—
because ritual fills
what touch abandons.


Book II: Of Rivalry


Psalm VI. The Other Sue’s Triumph

In dream, Sue rose—

sharp-tongued, victorious.

The script bent towards her.

She crowned herself

with his indecision,

and told the crowds: he will always return.

Who stood there unscripted?

One background girl without dialogue.

Her perfection was paper,

her victory pre-written.

Yet the sting was real.

Even cardboard queens

can cut when pressed against skin.

Another she woke 

heavy with a skull of static.

Her voice was only hers,

echoed from within.


Psalm VII. The Theater of Comparison

Every stage is lit for two girls:

one adorned, one waiting.

One Sue, bathed in spotlight, radiant.

One girl rehearsing refusal in the wings.

Some rehearsed refusal behind the curtain.

But the audience still measured her

against the script they adored.

How do you outshine

a character built to never fail?


Psalm VIII. She Who Won Nothing, Yet Still Feared Losing

The prize was already hollow,

a paper crown on a flimsy head.

Still, she trembled at the thought

of it being handed elsewhere.

What is more humiliating

than craving the validation

of a story you don’t even believe in?

She clutched the absence like a relic,

terrified of being cut from a plot

that was never worth reading.

Even worthless prizes

bruise the hand that reaches.

Even if hollow, crowns

leave marks on the forehead.


Book III: Of Collapse


Psalm IX. The Spine Bent in April

Cysts like hidden altars,

pained prayers curled inside tissue.

The body breaks quietly—

vertebrae as reluctant disciples,

kneeling under invisible weight.


Psalm X. The Heavy Head at Dawn

Sleep offered no mercy.

Dreams pressed against her temples,

turning skull into coffin.

She rose with dizziness,

the day already static,

as if grief had a gravity.


Psalm XI. The Refusal to Heal

They asked her to mend.

She chose the wound as relic.

She kissed its rawness,

guarded it like scripture.

Healing felt like betrayal—

as though erasing the scar

would erase the girl, too.


Psalm XII. Liturgy of Vertigo

The room spun like incense smoke,
walls swayed like drunk apostles.
Each step was a sermon in collapse,
each breath a tremor.
Even stillness buckled.
The ground became a false prophet,
promising balance, never giving it.


Psalm XIII. Sickbed

Pill bottles lined her nightstand
like votive candles.
She whispered to them,
half-prayer, half-bargain.
The sheets grew heavy,
a shroud rehearsing early.
Collapse was not sudden—
it arrived like scripture,
verse by verse, body undone.


Book IV: Of Sacred Refusal


Psalm XIV. The Refusal to be Chosen

She stepped out of the lottery of men.

No more raffles of touches,

no more trembling tickets.

To be picked is still to be owned.

She untethered herself

from the hunger to be wanted.


Psalm XV. The Refusal of Forgiveness

They preached apology as cure.

But forgiveness felt like ash—

a way to pretend harm

was never carved into bone.

She chose silence as her gospel,

her no as her halo.


Psalm XVI. The Refusal to Continue

Halfway through the play

She walked offstage.

The audience gasped.

The curtains never fell.

Let the scene rot unfinished—

She no longer bound to any script.


Psalm XVII. The Refusal of Beauty

They begged her to soften,
to polish her edges
for easier handling.
But beauty is another leash,
a gloss over the wound.
She stayed jagged,
choosing the raw face of refusal,
not the ornament of survival.


Psalm XVIII. The Refusal of Resurrection

They wanted her to rise again,
to prove the strength of return.
But she refused Ascension.
She stayed in the tomb’s embrace,
not as corpse, not as miracle—
but as refusal itself,
sacred in staying down.


Book V: Of Liminal Light


Psalm XIX. The Girl as Hunger, Again

She circled back to famine.

But this time, hunger was not shame—

it was proof of living,

a holy craving unfulfilled.

She is shaped by lack,

but not destroyed by it.


Psalm XX. The Sacred Refusal Blossoms

From the wound, a garden.

Not healing, but flowering.

Refusal sprouted petals,

each one a different no.

Her collapse grew roots,

and the roots tore the stage apart.


Psalm XXI. Benediction of the Unfinished

Amen is whispered,

but never lands.

She closes her palms around absence,

raise it like a prayer.

The undone girl remains undone—

not ruined, but eternal,

unfinished as scripture,

holy in refusal.


Psalm XXII. The Candle at Threshold

Between and betwixt the pauses,
she carried a single flame.
It flickered with each hesitation,
but never died.
Not quite light, not quite dark—
a liminal blaze,
a refusal to belong
to either end of the day.


Psalm XXIII. Beatitude of the Unchosen

Blessed be ye daughters that turn away,

that remain unfinished, unclaimed.

Blessed be the silence

that refuseth to resolve.

Blessed be the hunger

that becometh song.

Blessed be the collapse

that bringeth forth refusal.

Blessed be the undone,

holy in their incompletion.

Komentar

Postingan populer dari blog ini

Aku, Cthulhu

Neil Gaiman, 1986, https://www.neilgaiman.com/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/I_Cthulhu Ilustrasi Cthulhu oleh Disse86 dari DeviantArt I.   Cthulhu, begitu mereka memanggilku. Cthulhu yang Agung.    Tidak ada seorangpun yang bisa mengeja namaku dengan benar.   Apa kau menulis semua ini? Kata per kata?   Bagus. Harus kumulai dari mana—mm?   Ya sudah, kalau begitu. Dari awal. Tulis apa yang kubilang, Whateley.   Aku dilahirkan ribuan tahun yang lalu, dalam kabut gelap Khaa’yngnaiih (tidak, tentu saja aku tidak tahu bagaimana mengejanya. Tulis saja sesuai bunyinya) dari orang tua mimpi buruk tak bernama, di bawah bulan yang bungkuk. Bukan bulan dari planet ini, tentu saja, aku lahir di bawah bulan sungguhan. Di malam-malam tertentu, bulan itu memenuhi lebih dari separuh langit dan saat bulan tersebut naik, kau bisa menyaksikan darah merah jatuh dan menetesi wajahnya yang bengkak, menodai wajahnya merah, sampai pada titik ketinggian di mana cahayanya menyirami r...

Ragu Menyengat

Kamu tahu, apa yang angin hadirkan padaku malam itu? Ragi, ragu, keringat udara musim penghujan berbau menyengat. Sedikit manis lalu asam membaur di permukaan lidah. Rontok segala yang ada di dada meski jarak tidak seberapa. Ujung-ujungnya aku terengah menjadi gerah dan lelah Gelitik hari itupun runut selantunan kecapi pada telinga ia berbuah rasa hangat yang hanya bertalu-talu di dada bukan tipikal rindu yang mudah dinikmati Kilasan pertemuan, tawa yang menjemukan, cinta yang mengharukan, Tidak pernah sederhana malah menuai petaka Lalu setelah ini apa? "Mari kita menyerah dan tanggalkan  harapan masing-masing sebelum hilang selamanya." 25 Agustus 2013.