cut

By Dylan Kull 

You see, I’ve got this cut

and I don’t know if it came from anything in particular.

It just kind of showed up over time.

As if the tectonic plates under my skin moved millimeters every day

And the fibers of my tissue began to stretch until they

snapped

and now

I’ve got this cut.

It won’t stop bleeding. It bled through a box of tissues,

A half roll of toilet paper and I’ve finally gotten a bandage

But I can already see the red blot blooming out in all directions.

Soaking up all the white of the fabric.

Tainting it with scarlet stains.

How much more blood do I have left to lose?

It’s the kind of cut where

even when the skin cells multiply

and scab over that crimson chasm

It didn’t really heal at all.

What do you do with a cut like that?

The kind of cut that's deep.

So deep you see white,

so deep you wonder if you’ve struck bone

or something deeper.

So deep your parents had it.

And their parents had it.

God I hope my kids won't have it.

That kind of cut that splits back open at the sight of a knife

Or a blade of grass

Or even when someone tells you “Hey you’re looking sharp”

The kind of cut that no one gave you

A cut that maybe you gave you

Because someone had to give it to you.

How do you tell someone that they cut you?

Does anyone know what to do?

With a cut like that?