Inside out – Nina Richardson

Inside out
 
i cut my finger
today, quite by accident
sliced it open sliverquick
the piece of grin-glinting glass lying in the sink
the blood bloomed jubilant from
the curling furls of my fingertip
you’re alive! it dripped
look at all this oxygen
this steaming red-hot rush
slickening your veins,
making your bones hum
but a slip step breath goodbye and
we peel in half, peach-soft and dripping
splitting into pieces and pieces of
bone skin attic junk
a milk tooth, a ballet slipper, a memory wrinkling
what are we then, really?
it’s a delicate thing,
our paper paper skin
the touch of my finger to yours
a freckle graze,
slow and deafening
a current raging
so close to the surface
how easily we are
able to turn ourselves inside
out
 

Nina Richardson
Year 13
Samuel Marsden Collegiate School Karori