'Burn the House Down' and 'Office Skincare Routine', by Kara Rowan
Burn the House Down
There’s a house growing under my skin.
Grandmother isn’t doing well
so Father screams in my ear, his steps rattling between my eyes.
“Shut that woman up!”
I try a q-tip extermination
but if I scrape too far,
I’ll burst my eardrum.
Father put his fist through the drywall
Mother is crying behind my corneas and
Grandmother isn’t doing well.
Each fight pulses and puckers my skin,
raw and itching.
If I can’t extract them
I’ll burn the house down.
Office Skincare Routine
My skin always looks clearest
after I’ve been laid off.
Leaving all the toxins
Behind.