The thick layer of polish comes off slow and painstaking, stripping away with it layers of nail. I cute away at my brittle nails, claw and scrape at my cuticles. I tear skin and hair away from my face along the strip of thick glue that I toss into the waist bin. Water pecks at my flesh as I scrub at my scaly rough arms, I rake my dry scalp, run a razor along my legs, and more hair and skin fall away, circling the drain as they go. I rub a watery sandpaper up and down my forehead and eyes, my nose, my cheek bones, chin, jawline, sloughing away yet another layer. The water pecks and pings and falls away from me like blood and dirt and the earth beneath me goes. I'm not in my body anymore.

I am grateful for my body.

I don't know where it comes from but I'm crying now. Who is not grateful for my body? all the attention it gets…is it me or them?

*I love my body. It is not my body's fault