Basic Psychology

Kristin LaFollette

I would kiss my scars
if I knew where they were—

In my center,
I am free of strangers,
the growing assemblage
of my own

young,

my frame never meant
for the soft skeleton and
translucent skin of a

child.

I keep losing you, the
body-absent I’ve not known
and can’t will myself to create

in the heat of my bones
or the synapses
of my mind.

I don’t know how to grieve
something I know nothing
about: The sweat and
sting of
motherhood,
the curve
of skin over skin,
small mouth
persistently
wet with milk—

A woman takes salt
and makes it into
a body;

my own body reveals nothing,
only the loose fibers where
desire used
to be.

Kristin LaFollette (she/her) is a writer, artist, and photographer and is the author of the chapbook, Body Parts (GFT Press, 2018). She is a professor at the University of Southern Indiana and serves as the Art Editor at Mud Season Review. You can visit her on Twitter at @k_lafollette03 or on her website at kristinlafollette.com.