‘I Should Wear My Skin Inside Out’ by Megha Rao

I should wear my skin inside out and see how the world looks at me. My entire nervous system on the display. I want the world to see my veins, the hot blood that flows in them: Red, blue, and black. Like a bandana, I tie them around my arteries, blocking the spit, mud and disgrace flung at me. I want them to see how my heart cleans out the poison that people injected into it, how it filters the stones they threw at me-Like a catapult, it spits back at them; like a gun, spewing bullets.

I should wear my skin inside out, upside down like a national flag, and wave my muscular system at the world. O my enemy, do these muscles terrify? I may not be built enough, I may not harbour armed mountains, but don’t you dare laugh at me. I fight like a girl.

And that is exactly why you should be afraid.

I should wear my skin inside out, and reveal the wide galaxy of my skeletal system: These bones are not brittle, but a web of iron and dynamite. They are bomb shelters. They are home to a multitude of explosives. Touch my spine and you will know, its broken barriers have faced burns, but it refused to succumb.

My lungs lunge at the spiteful words and bite their heads off. My stomach chews the daggers biting into my flesh. My entire body fights back.

My immunity system is conditioned to slip back to normal. My feet have straight orders from my brain to get back on the floor if ever I trip.

Together, they work like an army, and I am the queen. I am just nineteen, but I will go for the crown.

I should wear my skin inside out, because I am a war zone in myself. My bandaged, fractured self has known trauma beyond reason, but it has fought hard, and it is my favorite soldier. It never let its scars define itself, but it has waged on like a thunderstorm.

I should wear my skin inside out, just so you know.

I am not one to be reckoned with.

Author’s Bio:

Megha RaoMegha Rao is a third year UG student doing her B.A. English course in Madras Christian College, Chennai. She lived in Singapore for ten years, and moved to Kerala when she was in her sixth grade. She published her first novel, Alice: The Netherworld in 2012 and its sequel, Alice: The Inferno Conspiracy in 2014.

She started writing when she was six. She used to make comic books and create characters. She loves sketching and painting, and is an avid fan of Josephine Wall. She currently blogs at www.meao95.blogspot.com

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