Janet Kuypers poem "What The Hell is She Complaining About"

Stripped is a performance art show by Janet Kuypers live in Chicago. This 06/07/05 show contained a series of her poems (all political in nature) with artwork displayed to coincide with her readings, to portray her own artwork as well.
The artwork display in this show is different from her other pieces of art normally displayed for her performance art shows, because on the left of images are the title of the writing the image pertains to, and there is also a larger white space below the title to the left of the image. This is because for a change of pace, Janet Kuypers decided to actually sit directly in the projected image area for her show, This mean that she was really well-lit (by the projector, she even had to wear sunglasses for the show because of the light shining on her), and she was right next to her artwork as it was presented during her show. This film is of live video recorded from that performance.

This is the poem that was used in her show:


What the Hell is She Complaining About


i can't go around telling people
about what you did to me
you see, nobody wants to hear it
and nobody wants to hear a girl whining
what the hell's she complaining about anyway?
but you know, nobody knows
the effects of what you've done
nobody knows that I showered for weeks
no, months
to try to feel clean after you did that to me
nobody knows why i have
violent fits of rage
how I'd hit the wall, rip up the plaster

you want to know what i think of men now?
you want to know their place in my life now?
you see, i didn't know what else to do
so i became the rapist
and now i let men do nice things for me
but i always keep them at a safe distance
i never let them get too close
because i don't care how nice you are
i'll always keep you at arm's length
i learned my lesson

so yeah, you had an effect on me
and i have to bottle it all up
because no one wants to hear the details
i mean, i wasn't physically injured
what the hell could i be complaining about anyway?

but you know, there are times
when i wish you left a mark,
like a bee sting or something,
so people could see a welt
from what you had done

wait, no, i take that back
i'd wish i was stung by a bee
and i was allergic to bees

because then my blood pressure would drop,
my pulse would get rapid,
i'd fall into anaphylactic shock
my skin would turn white
before I got the the hospital
as they tried to keep me alive

all because of a bee sting

while everyone else is thinking,
a bee sting,
what the hell is she complaining about

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Janet
• Kuypers
• www.janetkuypers.com
• poem
• poetry
• reading
• Chicago
• performance
• show
• stripped
• political
• poems
• get
• our
• cage
• h

[maninwhitedress]

pleasant