izzy

I think about taking nude photographs for my own benefit
to see what my body looks like through a more abstracted gaze
through a slightly less personal lens than my own two eyes
if I close my eyes I think I can remember your body more truthfully than mine.

there is something disturbing about the fact that we will never see our true selves
that the mirror will always distort the reflection somehow
I have looked at my face in so many mirrors
and it will still always be a stranger

*

sarah

They finally carved out what you could never slice open deep enough
peeled back those spidery lines of white to find the simmering meat
took a grater to your leg (tore a few bits along the way – slivers for the dogs)
and sewed you back up like a Frankenstein doll
left you stroking the boiled, bubbled, burnt looking flesh
with promises of alchemy, horror into gold
Violence begets violence til the summertime comes
and the wounds just melt away

*