by Micaela Meyer

There’s a downside to being introspective: 
I pick myself apart in the name of being reflective.
Taking a scalpel, I cut straight to my soul–
full of “self knowledge,” feeling anything but whole.

It’s exploratory surgery
with a lethal incision,
I scrape away my worth with searing precision.
My distorted reflection, a self-image I bore
in the crimson pooling on my bedroom floor

Here I lie in my self-imposed shame
pushing away God’s sutures of grace.

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Micaela Meyer is a poet from Modesto, California whose work unfolds in conversation with God and the writers of Scripture. Many of her poems begin in the Notes app while parked in shopping center lots after closing time.