If I Turned Myself Inside Out
by Anabell Donovan
If I turned myself inside out
I would be like a glove,
all seams there to be displayed,
each one uneven and rushed,
like my stitching.
There wouldn't be lace,
orderly and dainty,
like the minute crested
waves at the lake.
No, no lace.
My last two ribs,
odd boning in this corset,
childlike and unfinished
I should have a waist like a wasp,
but things don't work that way for me,
just an oddity in X-rays.
A pause, and a startled
"Did you know...?" from a doctor.
Inside out flesh gathers a bit
around my right hip,
my atrocious use of patterns
and a horseback riding accident,
one leg slightly shorter than the other
and an almost imperceptible limp.
When I'm tired,
When it's about to be cold.
And the sparing ones still sort out my
thread of life, coiled in my chest,
behind my heart.
But here in Texas you never know.
You just never know.
I would be like a glove,
all seams there to be displayed,
each one uneven and rushed,
like my stitching.
There wouldn't be lace,
orderly and dainty,
like the minute crested
waves at the lake.
No, no lace.
My last two ribs,
odd boning in this corset,
childlike and unfinished
I should have a waist like a wasp,
but things don't work that way for me,
just an oddity in X-rays.
A pause, and a startled
"Did you know...?" from a doctor.
Inside out flesh gathers a bit
around my right hip,
my atrocious use of patterns
and a horseback riding accident,
one leg slightly shorter than the other
and an almost imperceptible limp.
When I'm tired,
When it's about to be cold.
And the sparing ones still sort out my
thread of life, coiled in my chest,
behind my heart.
But here in Texas you never know.
You just never know.
Anabell Donovan (Anna Eusthacia) is a psychologist and educator dedicated to student success of minorities and under-represented individuals in higher education. She loves words and would always like to “start where language ends.”