Open Wounds

In an Action Writing Workshop, the first time Annie Lanzillotto had me write spiral-style, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t really understand what it meant to start from the outside of a scene, and make my way in, or vice versa. I just thought and ran with it. This is what I produced on that magical yellow swirl:

Julie holds my hand
“Pain is beauty,” the man says
The chair is cold
11 years old
“Pick which studs you like.”
White

Cotton ball beneath my ear
burning, yearning
redness
Prick
through my flesh

Where’s my mother?
She wouldn’t take me
It
hurts
The second needle
plunges
into
my
heart