Carving Up Poem by Yiling Ding

In my mind
I am drawing scars
on my arms.
With a silver scimitar
I am carving up my back
and sinking steel
into the layers of fat.
I am tearing off
all the grease in me
and ripping off
my pasty skin,
drenching it in
mortal red
as I cleanse myself
of all my flesh.
And then the heart,
the lungs, the brain:
all these objects
I wean myself from
until I can breathe
a different air.
I am leaving myself bare
in my bloodied bones
and waiting for them
to disintegrate back
into the earth.
Until then
I'll be waiting here
for my new
immortality.