It's My Sadness, Does This to Me

I said my body is filled to the brim with trauma

which one?
you asked

there are more than several skins
hanging off the weakest limb inside us

it's a long walk

between here and there
and not every skin makes it
which one are you wearing,

I think it's the same one but I’m not sure

you show me a scar that runs from your wrist up to your elbow

see here, this isn't the same skin
I've shed several layers since this happened
since he put this there

doesn't it still itch I ask

only when I let it, you say

only when I let it.

James Diaz is the author of This Someone I Call Stranger (Indolent Books, 2018). He is founding editor of the literary arts & music mag Anti-Heroin Chic. His work has appeared most recently in Occulum, Moonchild Magazine, and Philosophical Idiot. He lives in upstate NY and occasionally tweets @diaz_james.