Site icon The Sundress Blog

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Affidavit by Starr Davis

sundresspublications

This selection, chosen by Guest Editor Claudia Santos, is from Affidavit by Starr Davis (Hanging Loose Press 2026).

ZOOM COURT

and even
though it is
virtual, i still
cringe		the first time
seeing my
abuser’s face
since i left
him 5 months
ago		he is suing
me for our
pound a flesh,
a baby i never
thought i
would have		he is wearing
the shirt
i bought
him for our
maternity
photoshoot.		he is
confident. i
am not.
he knows this.
so, i already
know
i have lost.		i am miles
away from
him sitting in
an apartment
with pink
walls. i hate
pink.		but it made
the whole
house feel like
a nursery		secret: i
wanted the
house to
swaddle me		halfway
across the
country in the
middle of the
winter with a
newborn		back to the
women who
know me by
my scent
court isn’t a
new word for
us.		my mama
says, “back in
my day, a man
would just let
you leave.”		she is speaking
of my father.		when i tell
them i have
been served
and must
attend, not in-
person but via
zoom court
on video, they
all laugh and
ask me if i am
joking. in-
person		“this will
be over in 5
minutes,” a
lawyer assures
me.		i place a
sticky-note
over his face
on my laptop
screen.
the gallery
grid keeps
shifting as
people leave
the virtual
courtroom
as cases are
dismissed. this
will be me
soon, i think
to myself.		my little
human is with
someone safe,
somewhere
away from
me and our
nursery home.		the lawyer
encourages
me that i am
doing this for
her.		five months
postpartum,
i am still
squishy
around my
abdomen and
wet around
the nipple.		courts usually
rule in favor
of mothers,
all kinds of
people tell me.		he is younger
than me, my
abuser.
just a boy, my
grandmother
likes to
remind me.		what would
the difference
be, if i were
dealing with a
man?		a white
woman judge
confirms
sex is just a
construct.		she places
my body and
all things
belonging
under the
jurisdiction
of a purple
moon.		the sticky-
note falls off.		i see myself
on the screen,
crying beside
him.

Starr Davis (she/her) is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Academy of American Poet’s Poem-a-Day, and The Rumpus. She was the 2024 Writing Freedom Fellow with Haymarket Books and the Mellon Foundation. 

Claudia Santos (she/her) is a Mexican reader and writer. She received the PECDA Colima 2024 writing grant for her non-fiction work and was a Sophia-FILCO Young Writers 2025 finalist for her poetry work. She is currently pursuing an MA in Children’s Literature as a EMJM scholarship recipient.


Latest posts by sundresspublications (see all)
Exit mobile version