excerpt from "Bubble Bath and the Ecstasy of Diminishing"
by Catherine St. Denis

***Note: This excerpt depicts self-harming.***




Lilith’s dad texts her from Ottawa.

How goes? Willow says hi.

Willow is the wicca-obsessed paralegal her dad left her mom for when Lilith was eight.

Fine, Lilith texts. She sends him a clip of the triplets holding the edge of the coffee table and bobbing up and down to “I Like Big Butts.” Then she sends him a gif of a white koi fish in a pond, still swimming along rhythmically despite something having bitten a giant crescent of flesh out of its belly.

Cute, he replies.

After that, Lilith pulls an Amazon Basics razor out of its cardboard sleeve, runs a bath, sits inside, and then carefully slices open one of the stretch marks that clasps her right hip. The skin opens into redness like a mouth.

 

 

 

From The Malahat Review's spring issue #230