Content warning: self-harm
Injuries You Cannot See #29
She has four dents in her head:
when everyone was obsessed
with that game Fruit Ninja,
she grabbed a carving knife
from the kitchen drawer and tried
to split her skull apart like
a watermelon, desperate to
“get the badness out.” She didn’t
achieve her goal of removing
her brain from her skull that day;
the sharp knife cut her hair
wherever the blade landed,
and she was left with little tufts
sticking up and out for months
which made her feel silly
(her hair did, not the fact that she
had casually attempted a DIY lobotomy).
Originally published in Issue #26 of South Florida Poetry Journal (August 2022). Read the full issue here.
Treacle Heart 