Six Questions to Ask Your Therapist Instead of Responding to Whatever it was She Just Asked You | Hailey Spencer

1.     I feel it in the calcified spaces between my ankles and my ribs, underneath the porcelain of my cheeks. Can you tell me what lightning it is that lives beneath my skin? Can you tell me how to keep myself from burning?

2.     When I was five I got lost in the grocery store and every mother was wearing the same floral leggings, and icicles started running down my cheeks, and my own mom finally found me in the condom aisle. Can you tell me why this happened?

3.     Who else should have been there?

4.     What happens if I’m not ready?

5.     In fifth grade, we were told that with careful footing, you can stand on all the eggs in a carton without breaking a single one, that when standing upright they’re so much less fragile than you’d think. Is it true? Would the eggs really survive without shattering? Can you prove it to me, please?

6.     Can I survive without at least trying to face it?

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Hailey Spencer is a poet and collage artist based in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of the collection Stories for When the Wolves Arrive and the chapbook Out of Love in Spring. She has been a board member and editor at First Matter Press since 2023. For more on Hailey and her work, find her on Instagram @outofloveinspring and on her website haileyspencerwrites.com