28 Days

The average skin cells lasts
for about twenty days.
In twenty-eight days
my skin will have been
untouched by you.
In twenty-eight days
it will be like yesterday
before you put you hands
on me.

Every time I wash my hands,
I’m scrubbing away your lingering
scent from underneath my fingernails.
I’m scratching away at your
touch that’s been stuck in the
crevices of my conscious thought.
Every time I change my clothes,
I’m removing a layer of headaches
from the moment I forgot my name.
I’m peeling off the plastered
guilt that I’m tired of wearing
over the engraved indentation of your fingertips.
They carved canyons into my skin
that are empty and hollow.

The average skin cell lasts
For twenty-eight days.
In twenty-eight days
It will be my skin again,
and it will be clean again.
But in twenty-nine days,
I will still remember
everything.