bellyache
Valerie Braylovskiy
I have never been grateful for you and my body knows it. So does my
mother when she asks what are those scratches on your belly. I correct
her, bellies are for little girls with posed fat rolls, stomachs are for big
girls who age in an eternal culture.
My subconscious screams in my sleep, restless with harmless
intention. Six scratches in the morning, I blame it on my nonexistent
dog who loves me too much and eats my taxes.
Excuse my subconscious, we don’t know one another.
I don’t know how to care for you anymore.
You are criminal evidence of decomposed dinners
and feelings swallowed without water,
crushed pills floating in your abyss.
I don’t hear your pulse before I fall asleep,
but I understand you are afraid of me
so sometimes I place
one hand on you, one hand on my heart.
I walk up the hill to remember
my body is a mountain range with
rivers gushing ancestral pride
and curves once pruned by fingertips.
We are one body of terrain
swimming out toward the abyss,
in hope for forgiveness.
mother when she asks what are those scratches on your belly. I correct
her, bellies are for little girls with posed fat rolls, stomachs are for big
girls who age in an eternal culture.
My subconscious screams in my sleep, restless with harmless
intention. Six scratches in the morning, I blame it on my nonexistent
dog who loves me too much and eats my taxes.
Excuse my subconscious, we don’t know one another.
I don’t know how to care for you anymore.
You are criminal evidence of decomposed dinners
and feelings swallowed without water,
crushed pills floating in your abyss.
I don’t hear your pulse before I fall asleep,
but I understand you are afraid of me
so sometimes I place
one hand on you, one hand on my heart.
I walk up the hill to remember
my body is a mountain range with
rivers gushing ancestral pride
and curves once pruned by fingertips.
We are one body of terrain
swimming out toward the abyss,
in hope for forgiveness.
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Valerie Braylovskiy PO '25 is from San Francisco, CA. She has been published in places like The Helix Magazine and Allegheny Review. She loves trying new coffee shops and going to the beach.
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