after Jean Rhys & Charlotte Brontë

I was born in the attic
because Mother claimed
brown the more honest name
for beige. They hit her —
the doctor, the priest, her
mother. She sat alone
all day, spitting her teeth
out like pomegranate.

There is this large putrid jar
beneath our bed. I came
after she climbed out
too often with the yard man
to lay cane. Now our days
will be out of doors, instead
of inside them; our future will lie
with petals, caterpillars, well-dressed
moss, hypnotic snails, clapping

orange frogs that know to climb
which tree for the ripest alligator
pear. Every ocean has known us,
Mother says, no shore is insignificant.
For every ship, still, the smallest sea
can be too wide. The world sits on the edge
of God’s razor, she says. And every day —
every day — He shaves
His fat face.

A FILM BY

Ryan Simon

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

Todd Boss
Egg Creative
Claire McGirr

PRODUCERS

Morna Ciraki
Justin Barber
Cori Cooperider
Michael Jacobs
Matt Woods

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Mobolaji Olaoniye

EDITOR

John Martin Jr.

Story by

Ryan Simon

Starring

Evelyn Brinson
Pete Munzi

Casting by

Strike Anywhere

Production Supervisor

Allison Acevedo

First Assistant Camera

Eric Ugland

Gaffer

Nghia Khuu

Sound

Oscar Martin

DIT

Nathaniel Ray

Production Designer

Julianna Castigliego

Camera PA

Kyle Klebe

Truck PA

El Smith

Office PA

Elyse Spence

Barber

YoungWerk

Voiceover Talent

Evelyn Bronson

Assistant Editor

John Tyler Beck

Company3

Colorist

Sean Coleman

Producer

Matt Moran

Egg Music

Composers

Joseph Vercharter

John Hermanson

Eric Fawcett

S14 Studios

Sound Design

Luke Harper

Haux Studios

Voice Records Engineer

Brian Taylor

Special Thanks 

Jennifer Dodgson
Andrew Gamson
Matt Piermantier
Andrew Reynolds
Daniel Slager
Jason Welsh
Anne White
Angella Kassube
Colin Best
Sean Donnelly
Matt Sklar
Jennifer Simon
American Poetry Review
The Poetry Foundation
VIDA: Women in Literary Arts
Panavision
Smuggler

“Every Day,” a poem by Robin Coste Lewis. ©2017 Robin Coste Lewis. Used by permission
of The Wylie Agency LLC.
This poem originally appeared in The New York Times. Collected in Resistance, Rebellion,
Life: 50 poems Now (Knopf Books).