empathy

SCRATCHES ON THE BACK

Artwork by Ana Ljubinkovic

 

 

I have the skin of two different boys
under my fingernails.

My mother tells me to clean them out when
I realize my thighs still ache from
all the ways he made me fold
underneath him and maybe
I like myself being
just a little bit
dirty.

Is it wrong of me to want, darling?
Is it wrong of me to leave?
To live?

Today in the shower I washed you out of my hair,

but I leave my nails undone.

I sharpen my tongue.
I file my teeth.

—

Sade Andria Zabala is a twenty-four year old Filipina surfer sometimes living in Denmark. She is the author of poetry books War Songs and Coffee and Cigarettes. Her work has appeared on places such as Literary Orphans, The Thought Catalog, The Rising Phoenix Review, Hooligan Magazine, Germ Magazine, and more. In her spare time she likes to eat words and drink sunlight

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