Glass Poetry Press

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Volume One Issue Two

Caitlin Ramsey

Handy

His baking paper skin is cold-pale and tightly drawn over the bones of his hands. There are no brittle bird bones here, no delicate frames for gold or diamonds, instead angry scaffolds beneath a fleshy harness, chafing and bulging at the seams of skin. Whitened knuckles shine and emaciated wrists bear promise of carnage to come. The too-thin skin will be no match for their ivory violence when mutinous cries rally them forward. They will shred that fishbelly veil without a second's hesitation and leave him, bleeding and handless, with gloves of shredded epidermis dangling from his wrists, as pathetic as empty pie wrappers. A small scatter of fingernails will lie, spread around like discarded clothes tags, bloodied and useless, except as bookmarks. And he will look back with fond affection to the innocent days before his bones ran away.