TO THE LITTLE GIRL PEELING THE SKIN OFF THE PAINTED GUM TREES — MK Bessac
It is gruesome,
what I did to you.
Nubby nails, like ivory hunters
husking every corium, every rind
and for what?
What was I hoping to find?
A tingling, arcane notion
you were holding out on me,
some vital tidbit enshrouded
beneath that bark.
But it was only pulp, sap, dumb
and wet, insisting upon itself,
reflective in the trembling grasp
of my selfish tiny, selfish hands.
MK Bessac is a writer from Hawaii and a senior in high school. Her poems have been selected for Editor’s Choice in Teen Ink and published in The Howl. When not writing, she enjoys playing with her cat, Misu, and stretching.