my father looks
at the dark marks on my legs
and asks me if my mother
made me this way
years later, sitting in the tattoo shop
leather chair and the drawing of
the flower on my thigh I think
of what he would say
I guess the canvas has been
sufficiently stretched
now it belongs
to me
Constance Mello (she/her) is a Brazilian scholar, writer, and teacher. She graduated with a degree in Cultural Studies and Gender Studies from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, and is currently pursuing a dual Master’s Degree in English and Creative Writing. She writes about migration, identity, love, and loss, and has been published in The Ilanot Review, Fearless She Wrote, Latinx Lit Mag, and elsewhere.
Eunoia Review 