Wolfgang Carstens

After the first cut

I looked
at myself 
in the mirror.

I looked
pretty much 
the same—

minus 
a bit of lip
and some nose. 

I’d been 
so scared

but now 

something had changed. 

I saw myself 
for what I truly was:

ugly,
imperfect flesh,

stretched 
over bone—

hiding 
behind the illusion

of a soul.