Vessel

When I removed my sweater and saw that I was peeling my first thought was to put the sweater back on. It's a natural thing, sure, but most natural things should be done in private. I thought peeling should be added to the list.

I don't like the idea of peeling. I don't like anything that links me closer to a snake. Shedding its skin, leaving behind a dried and useless casing of itself. Perhaps the same way I don't like the idea of death, that the body is just a vessel for some untouchable thing inside it. This is just a smaller version of that, one more step leading up to it (or perhaps it's down). We all flake away until we collapse.

I put my sweater back on. The windows of they room were larger than I remembered, or perhaps it was only a particularly sunny day. But I sweat, through and through. They asked me why I didn't just take the damn thing off. Because I'm trying to stay alive, any which way I can.