Elizabeth Harris

Cleveland, OH, USA

@_figfigfig_

ISSUE 1

Home Improvement

The sky is pink and serene—
a sky I’ve always longed to see
it matches the colors outside {inside} of me
soft and flush
blush
like swelled cheeks
full labia
the natural pigment of lips

You’ll go to the home improvement store
find swatches of pigments
trying to find my skin tone
pink, peach, nude, eggshell, beige
teeth, nipple, vulva, freckle

You’ll try to replicate me
paint pigments on your walls
trap yourself inside with fumes of colors
that you can’t place any longer
Your eyes forget what has been in front of you the whole time
But rip off the roof and look up in sky, in air
and realize I couldn't be
recreated in artificial tones—
recognize you couldn’t make me into a home

Burgundy

this morning when i woke up my blood was my favorite color—

a deep deep burgundy that looked like velvet but felt like corduroy and i

wiped the stain from from me but i

kept looking at the toilet paper and just staring and

staring and admiring and admiring and

i didn't want the color to leave my body i

wanted it to go back there inside me and stay

for a little while longer because it was

comforting to know that how i

felt on the inside was what was

actually inside of me