{"id":4001,"date":"2024-05-07T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/?p=4001"},"modified":"2024-05-03T15:18:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T13:18:33","slug":"skinning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/2024\/05\/skinning\/","title":{"rendered":"Skinning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TW: implied self-harm, light gore<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: <\/strong>Mel Riverwood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This room has no windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The walls encased, close, digging into one another
With the painful persistence of something man-
made to stand but which wishes it could crumble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are naked at places, scraps where the skin-coloured wall-
paper detaches from where nails have dug into it. 
There is more paper underneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the floor is papered, dirtied, rolls of it bouncing out of position
Like flowers rooted in the soil of a scabbing forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A table, in one corner. A skinning knife, blade sitting
Innocent on an edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There must be a door somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pick up the knife.
Yes, surely there must be one.
I walk to the first wall, raise the pained blade,
Pressing the flat of my thumb against its side
As an executioner would guide a death-sentenced to the noose
And together they slide under the piece of loose
dangling
skin-
coloured
paper
And pull upwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It tears, scarlet sap pearls from underneath and slides as a solid tear at my feet.
I ignore it.
I was taught about the inconsistency of pain and the irrelevance of echoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no door under that part.
I raise my hand again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon my feet stick to the petals on the floor and in walking around
Wall to wall
Tearing
Skinning
I pull them off and along.
The glue covers my fingers, stuck the knife to my hand
But the door is still hidden, 
Though it must be there.
It must be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cannot think of anything except the word \u2018escape\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the room is covered in pieces of paper and drenched, 
Seeping
Weeping
In wallpaper-
blood,
Glue that sticks to my eyes as I scour every corner
In search of a frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I lay down the skinning-knife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have torn every possible layer,
And the last pieces hung high,
And I did not bother to wonder
If they would hold on much longer,
Or when they would fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no door.
Skinning the walls of my room had only made them bleed.



Perhaps the door is underneath my skin.






I pick up the knife again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TW: implied self-harm, light gore Author: Mel Riverwood This room has no windows. The walls encased, close, digging into one anotherWith the painful persistence of something man-made to stand but which wishes it could crumble. They are naked at places, scraps where the skin-coloured wall-paper detaches from where nails have dug into it. There is more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002770,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[36],"class_list":{"0":"post-4001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-2024-spring","7":"tag-poetry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002770"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4222,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions\/4222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}