4 Easy Steps to Clear Skin

by Asten Fallavollita

Find the seam tucked under your hairline. Has it always been there?

Slip your fingers under your skin. It’s easy, like piercing the flesh of a peach with the nail of your thumb. It stings gingerly imagine a lover’s bite.

Peel downwards slowly, and in chunks. The blood is thick. It sticks to the underside and falls away in hot gloopy strings. Your bathroom sink clogs with skin. It’s only a mask.

Finally, smile. Your eyes and teeth will glisten like pearls  against the scarlet satin of fresh gore. That damned red now lays bare, and naked and in time, it will bloom healthy and pure, as soft as the petal of a peach blossom.

Asten Fallavollita is a sentient tree. He studies robotics in California, where he lives with his family and his three plush squids, Deckard, Ocho, and Jumbo. His work has also appeared in the publication Birds Piled Loosely.