egg yolk puff by Vivian Dong (16, New Jersey)

Trigger Warning: Implications of eating disorders

three thousand layers
but I'm a naked body
puffer coat turned gossamer thin
as grimy fingers abrade baked skin 

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a layer for protruding rib cage bones
crushed frames in hourglass molds
bone fragments dribble in marching time towards an Instagram-worthy graveyard stone
a layer for plastic legs in rhinestone gates limbs groped smooth in Gatsby proms bones on stilts laced in ribboned skin burned raw by sheets of boiled wax
a layer for glossy soap-bubble eyes
to replace caved dashes on jaundiced hide thick slits cut into egg-washed leather licking shriveled cracked-dirt-skin
a layer for glass-made sloping nose
a slip-slide for blackened spider tears
eye lashes melt to long gashes on rosed cheeks
glitter sprinkled like ashes down flesh-lined cemetery street
a layer for yellowed plastic sheathing criss-crossed by bloody pus-lined cracks plastered to sweaty body gone démodé sausage casing filled with decay
leaving nothing but the xanthous orb
discarded because no one likes
talking mannequins with hoarse words and dying roars because taxidermied bodies don’t cry like live ones do 
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Vivian Dong is a 16 year old student from New Jersey who enjoys trying her hand at pretty much every form of written word from poetry to short stories to essays. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.