Sciences Participating with Arts & Culture in Education

Self Love

Illustrated by Mathew Crescenza

A hot bath is self love

I tell myself as my blood vessels rise

And even pop to the occasion

Finally, some self care

I can barely feel the knots

That my intestines have tied themselves into

Too focused on my breath

Because if I do not focus

I’ll faint

This is self-discipline

To sit in pools of tears and malleable glass

Staying still for hours

Upon hours

Skinning yourself calmly

“How do you do it?” asks the brain

Well-

The first hour your skin peels off

You cannot move

Or sneeze

Or think

You just sit

And wince

Hour two you must take your legs out

If you’re lucky, you might just melt your toenails

The doctor will write you a note

“Time off needed for healing, no school for a week”

It reads

As if a week off could heal the toxicity of the best years of your life

Still, reading it we cry of happiness

And pain

It hurts to walk

When the clock strikes three,

You are human soup

Everyone loves soup

But somehow you remain unappetizing

You are still the last pick in gym class

By what feels like the fourth lifetime

Congratulations

You have cooked yourself alive

Your classmates are salivating

Dinner starts at five