the sweat in my palms - Jelisa Gonzalez
The less I try to focus on the sweat accumulated on my palms, the more I scrunch my mouth with the acute knowledge that I may have some weird ass form of dermatitis. “Don’t scratch” says google but also fuck google because it doesn’t matter how much I try to not scratch, my mouth feels as though its been branded like a sheep in a flock from some random western. At a low angle I flip my phone from its screen down position and I take a look and the horror that flashes my eyes. It could be an infection. It could be the unhygienic penis sucking. It could be letting my mouth be eaten and sucked by larvae injected lips. It could be the change in temperature. It could be my pollen allergy. It also could be my eczema.
Jelisa Gonzalez is a current English Major in the BA/MA program at UAlbany. She has previously been published in the past two editions of ARCH. She loves the community of creative writers that ARCH brings together and allows the space to be free in their process. In her spare time she loves to read, listen to music, and spend time with her friends.