I Wear Long Sleeves Even In Summer Poem by Dónall Dempsey

Blue bruises
bloom on my skin.

I wear long sleeves
even in summer.

First, I lost
my smile

it somehow
floated away.

(I wear long sleeves
even in summer.)

Next, I lost
my flesh

until I was nothing
but skin and bone.

My curves...my breasts
vanished into themselves.

'All...something...is...grass! '
I quoted to myself.

(I wear long sleeves
even in summer.)

The woman in the mirror
who claims she's me

isn't
...isn't!

A stranger holds
my eye.

I...I
looked away.

Blue bruises
bloom on my skin.

I wear long sleeves
even in summer.