Stephanie M. Wytovich: Surgical Fantasies of the Past Ten Years

Surgical Fantasies of the Past Ten Years

I tattoo incision lines on my stomach,

dream about surgically removing my ugliness.

At 16, the girls put laxatives in my peppermint tea,

laughed at me in the mirror when I tried to scream away my calories.

At 26, I cried in the shower when my skin didn’t fall off,

vomited the memories of my ex telling me I was diseased.

Inside, my lungs are a crawl space filled with candy wrappers,

my ribs broken from too many bathroom breaks ending in blood.

There are 206 bones in the human body,

Tell me, how many are in a monster?

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Stephanie M. Wytovich's work has been showcased in numerous anthologies such as Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories. Wytovich is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western Connecticut State University, and a book reviewer for Nameless Magazine. Her Bram Stoker Award-nominated poetry collections, Hysteria: A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, and Brothel earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press, and her debut novel, The Eighth, is published with Dark Regions Press. 

Her next poetry collection, Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare, is scheduled to be released October 2017 from Raw Dog Screaming Press, and her short story collection, Inside the Skin Bouquet is set for a late 2017 release from Dark Fuse. Follow Wytovich at http://www.stephaniewytovich.com/ and on twitter @JustAfterSunse.