Just One Thing with Stephanie Kaylor

Stephanie Kaylor’s poem “Blanche DuBois Was Only Beaten Once” gives shape, verve, and power to this character from A Streetcar Named Desire. Here they share just one thing about the piece:

“I began this series of poems, meant to speak to the gap years between Williams’ character’s youth and the setting of his play, before I turned thirty—a time of reflecting on how in my adulthood, things that I intended to be transient had remained stagnant. And how stagnancy isn’t often just that, but a downward spiral—at least relatively, against the dreams of “it’ll get better soon” that never get closer even amidst the try try try (or is it trying?) I brought my copy of this book everywhere, though I typically didn’t read it—having the company of it was enough. When I bring most books with me there’s a guilt I’m not reading them, but with this one, being unable to read it while drinking cheap champagne in a motel felt like being truthful to it. There were a few years I put this series aside; I wanted to be out of that rut, and later when it became apparent I still wasn’t, it felt too raw to do the work of reflection. I picked it back up in December 2022. A trial sized packet of a Chanel anti-aging cream was in it.”