i stare at a mirror for the fiftieth time tonight yet i still dont recognize the face peering back at me. my hands are detached from my arms which are detached from my torso which i cant tell is mine anymore my head is all i know. but whose desperate eyes are those? a shaking hand makes its way up, up, up to my hair, tugs at it experimentally. a sharp flash of pain. i can trust my head. fingertips trace along soft flesh and they make contact with a bruised knee. when did it get this purple? since when did i bruise so easily? my body feels more and more foreign by the day. why must i stay within the confines of these fat legs, these heavy arms, this bulging stomach? why can i not tell the thickness of my own arm? the shape of my own hips? why must i be this way?
i genuinely dont know what my body looks like anymore. pictures seem to warp it, my mirror warps it, my eyes deceive themselves, i dont trust anyone else enough to tell me what i look like. here is what i felt before i showered one evening