SandScript 2021

ENROBE YOURSELF IN
VELVET
Salina Molina
Surround your mirrors with candles
of various sizes and shapes
and light them as you pass by
so the height of each flame
can illuminate a different part of yourself
you no longer wish to see.
Cloak your eyes in a haze of smoke:
incense, cigarettes, old journal pages,
and good old-fashioned weed by-products,
to further obscure the image you have of yourself
and worsen that astigmatism
that you’ve been cultivating
to keep your vision good and blurry.
Foil your nails with gold leaf
and pretend that your muse
is worthy of being your muse
instead of just someone
you’ve known for years now
who’s only slightly better
at being a person than you are.
Live under a set of standards
revolving around distraction,
“self-soothing,” deep denial,
more distraction, making it to
enrobing yourself in crisp green velvet.
Visually stunning
and aesthetically compelling,
cheap to the touch
enough to make you dislike your face
when you look in a mirror.
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