“I try to find the truth of a moment or make sense of something that has stuck with me or confused me. I write trying to obtain some sort of explanation for what intrigues, bewilders, or disgusts me. I write until I have an epiphany or until the end product of the poem hits me in the gut. If these things fall into place, the writing will find its audience.”
This Is How I Love Myself
I had a knot
From a fall
Two years ago
It never went away
But crusted over
Barnacles on a hull
I scrubbed it with soap
Caressed it with lotion
Hid it with sleeves
It is only recently
That it has shown improvement
I smothered it with acid
Scales falling away
It is nearly gone
Except for a heart-shape place
This is how I love myself
Not the preservation
Of what is there
But the destruction
Of the parts
I can no longer
Stand to look at
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Jessica Swafford is a poet and mixed media artist from Georgetown, Kentucky. She has been published in several journals including The Heartland Review, Inscape, Pollen, and The Georgetown Review as well as the anthologies, & Grace and Her Limestone Bones. She was a 2016 Top 10 finalist for The Gravity of the Thing’s Six Word Story Contest. She was also the winner of the 2014 May B. Smith Essay Competition. Most recently her work was included in A BROAD Perspective, part of the BROADS United movement. She is currently participating in The Gauntlet, a yearlong generative writing workshop.
