Hello Reader,

Welcome to Litigation.

This field documents the texture of a time when I was compressed and almost squished out of existence. My sovereignty was under threat, and there was little I could do at the time to free myself. The shape of my container was an intimate relationship and surrounding social ecosystem.

Poetry kept me breathing; writing to you gave me something to believe in.

Thank you for being here to read this.

The arc begins with poetry and walks you through my internal sensation inside the relationship, starting with its hesitant but trusting optimism, moving into the bodily sensation of not yet knowing I’d made a mistake, through the bitterness and defensive mentalities of the middle months, into my stoic bravery & clinical study, then my confusion and softness the night of the breakup, culminating in the somatic cost of my eventual freedom from the entire environment.

The final piece in the collection is an essay, written while my feelings were in the process of crystallization. It catalogs the experience from a different angle and implicitly inspects the similar pattern of behavior between the group and the individual.

This is a vulnerable share, but I am dedicated to the integrity of this process.

In that name, the title “Litigation” is a blunt inside joke to myself.

The events contained within these pieces and the cost sustained by my body have significant moral weight and carry real severity, regardless of whether existing systems are able to bring me justice or accountability.

Though the collection itself is heavy, in curating and labeling it, I carried a spirit of, how silly is it that I must go to these lengths to confirm what I already know to be true?

I invite you to hold that in your heart as you continue forward.

Happy reading.

~ Alida