How a Salamander Sheds

I want to shed like a salamander, shucking hands like pale filmy gloves. Like someone coming off shift at the ER, shedding gloves of purple nitrile, discarding them in the bin. No: a salamander eats its skin when it molts. I want to change my skin like that. I want to get rid of the hard layer I’ve grown in the last three years, under the mask that made my face smell like a dirty sock. I’d like to forget the gloves and the smell of Lysol everywhere, but I’d also like to believe that nothing is wasted and that I could eat this discarded armor and grow stronger. That I could eat my gloves, and my mask, and my own face.

 

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