ELECTRIC MOON MAGAZINE
  • Home
  • About
  • Issues
  • Submit
  • Home
  • About
  • Issues
  • Submit
ELECTRIC MOON MAGAZINE

​self portrait as kuntilanak

​by dena igusti
the kuntilanak is a ghost that appears with long dark hair and a pale white face. According to
Indonesian folklore, kuntilanak are the ghosts of women who suffered a violent death by men (i.e.
abusive husbands). They have long nails used to devour the bodies of men. Their desire to
retaliate against men is constantly debated.


do i have to die
             in order to be left alone?

i’ve coiled my fingers
              into a half fist
                             all my life

yet i still find myself
           bearing witness
                        to all my wounds

all forms of 
               defense rendered 
                                           useless

the one that killed me
               in order to stay alive
                              tells my story anyway

the only way i survived
             was through a death

but i’m forever tethered
            to the way 
                         my body is suspended 
                                                     in memory

i want you to feel this.
             not the one who 

is susceptible 
              to this circumstance

but the one who 
               turns this fear into fate

i will dig my nails
              into another man’s skin
                            if it means 
                            this will never happen again

Picture
Dena Igusti (she/they) is an Indonesian Muslim poet, playwright, and journalist based in Queens, New York. She is the co-founder of multidisciplinary arts collective UNCOMMON;YOU and literary press Short Line Review. She is a 2018 NYC Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador and 2017 Urban Word Federal Hall Fellow. She is a 2019 Player’s Theatre Resident Playwright for her co-written Off-Broadway production “Sharum”. She is an Ars Nova Emerging Leaders Fellow of Spring 2020. Her work has been featured in BOAAT Press, Peregrine Journal, and several other publications. She has performed at The Brooklyn Museum, The Apollo Theater, the 2018 Teen Vogue Summit, and several universities across the nation. Her forthcoming collection will be published with Game Over Books. You can find her work at denaigusti.com.
​

© COPYRIGHT 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.