as I once
plucked petal from flower,
I now strip you bare
scale by scale,
remaking you
into bristle:
into fragments
of a former self,
reaching
for parts
stolen away:
for ghost-limbs
of a trauma
we couldn't see,
so I pluck you
and you fall
and drop your seed,
returning to earth
for restoration:
for that healing cycle
where we all must go
to continue to grow.
Author Bio:
Kourtnie McKenzie is a teacher, writer, and artist from Fresno, California. Her writing and art has centered around awareness for women with autism since she discovered she was on the spectrum in 2014. In 2016, she was awarded the Ernesto Trejo Poetry Prize; the same year, she graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing from Fresno State. Her publications have appeared in Calyx Journal, Barking Sycamores, Barely South Review, and others. When she isn't reading or writing, she's teaching in a special education classroom at a local high school, or she's playing with her six cats, two birds, and five fish. Visit her website at www.kourtnie.net.
plucked petal from flower,
I now strip you bare
scale by scale,
remaking you
into bristle:
into fragments
of a former self,
reaching
for parts
stolen away:
for ghost-limbs
of a trauma
we couldn't see,
so I pluck you
and you fall
and drop your seed,
returning to earth
for restoration:
for that healing cycle
where we all must go
to continue to grow.
Author Bio:
Kourtnie McKenzie is a teacher, writer, and artist from Fresno, California. Her writing and art has centered around awareness for women with autism since she discovered she was on the spectrum in 2014. In 2016, she was awarded the Ernesto Trejo Poetry Prize; the same year, she graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing from Fresno State. Her publications have appeared in Calyx Journal, Barking Sycamores, Barely South Review, and others. When she isn't reading or writing, she's teaching in a special education classroom at a local high school, or she's playing with her six cats, two birds, and five fish. Visit her website at www.kourtnie.net.
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