“After My Therapist Suggested Taping My Baby Photos to the Mirror” by Kayla Simon

After My Therapist Suggested Taping My Baby Photos to the Mirror

What did you have for breakfast? I don’t even think you would remember. 
Maybe Dad’s chocolate-chip pancakes, a weekend staple.
I ate them last Sunday, because I was home and thinking of you again,

and I knew what they meant. You don’t know, yet, how little 
the body can carry. I won’t be the one to tell you — 
though in a twisted way I will, because you’re still there, 

sitting criss-cross-applesauce in the back of my mind, small hands
tracing the K in my name. I see through your baby blue eyes, 
carry the freckle dotted under your lip, our dimples still match 

with Dad’s. If I think too much about it or let myself 
look through Mom’s scrapbooks (which I am doing now), 
I soak the pages, gap in your teeth blurring to make a full mouth. 

How could I do that to you? Unflinching in the mirror, yet
afraid of the glint of a knife. Waiting only for Dad’s heavy footsteps 
outside the back door, his sturdy knock meaning dinner 

and love, which never used to be so far apart.

Kayla Simon

Kayla Simon is a 2023 graduate of the University of Connecticut, where she majored in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and double-minored in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Communication. Her work has previously been published in New Square, Grub Street, Long River Review, Red Cedar Review and others. When she isn’t writing or reading, you can find her taking photos for her photography business or looking at the stars.

Headshot: Molly Mia

Photo Credit: Staff