Spring Cleaning: Three Steps to a Spotless Body
- Mar 31, 2021
- 2 min read
by Olabisi Bello
Warning: Our company is not liable for any explosion triggered during this process.
Pro Tip: Perform the cleaning with the help of a trusted loved one.
Step 1
Unearth your minefield: glass fragments forced under torn skin and buried in cavities long forgotten, triggers, primed to explode from the careless graze of a wandering hand.
With a grip so gentle, like the hands of a mother lifting her child, uproot the shards and embrace the fountain springing forth from this pain. Be it an eruption, a trickle, or the tiniest of drops, the water will heal the new cuts carving paths on your bloody palms.
Step 2
In your safe space, spread the glass pieces on a table, the jagged corners bumping into each other like mismatched pieces of a puzzle you can’t decipher. Don’t do so now. Understanding your pain doesn’t mean it will go away. From the forest of your soul, let any and every emotion blossom. Hate, love. Joy, sadness. Hurt entangled with the seedlings of anger. Everything. It’s okay.
Step 3
By now, you should smell it: the scent of fresh air pooling into your snotty nostrils. (If not, repeat step 2)
Inhale the sweet fragrance as you hurry the glass into a bag, the air lifting the burden off your scarred back. Start to run. Yes, that’s it. One leg after the other. You can do this. Run until the scent trail leads you outside then you lift the bag and slam it into the ground, again and again, your hands unrelenting till the clinks of glass turn into thumps of powder, careful not to let the tears blind you or the weight pull you down. For all the lost love, the open wounds, the goodbyes that died before they could become hellos, for the webwork of fractures — engraved, forever in your story.
Now breathe.
One.
Two.
Three.
You’re clean.
Step 4
(Send the rest of our cheque.)
Olabisi Bello is an aspiring biomedical engineer from Oyo State, Nigeria, currently studying chemical engineering. Despite her passion for science, she has always loved the fluidity and joy writing grants her and hopes to make an impact in society with this gift and overall devotion to making the world a better place. Her works have appeared in the Kalahari Review, the Neurological Literary Magazine, and The Open Culture Collective.
