All the Ways in which I Cease to Be Me

Sometimes
I'm not so sure
If I'm really
Here
Taking deep breaths
Of a thick smoke
I begin to disappear

I finger a dent in the doorknob
Wondering where flaws come from
And how they become so vividly ingrained in me
Like a dent in myself
On my wrists
And within my chest

I want to scream at you
For fingering my dents
And making them deeper
Highlighting all the ways in which
I suddenly
Cease
To be
Me

Ariel Akselrad is currently a creative writing student at Purchase College in New York. She has been writing since the tender age of 6, when her grandmother gave her an old journal full of crispy, yellowed blank pages. She soon became addicted to the pain and misery that accompanies the life of an artist and has been masochistically engaging ever since.

Email: Ariel Akselrad

Return to Table of Contents