アカギレ（Chapped Skin）🐻‍❄️シロクマ文芸部 お遊び企画「手を洗う」に詩で参加します💓

Chapped Skin (for reading and presentation)

When I wash my hands,
a quick, sharp sting
runs through my fingertips.

I look down—
a thin red line,
no longer than a breath of pain.

It takes a few seconds
to remember
what it is—
a chapped skin,
after so many years.

And once I know,
the sting softens
into a slow, spreading warmth.

Nothing special.

I open the jar
I’ve kept since childhood—
Mentholatum.
A smiling nurse
on its little round lid,
and inside,
that fierce familiar scent.

Once, long ago,
a group of schoolgirls
laughed—
“Smells awful!” they said.

But I loved it.
It always healed my skin,
quietly, cleanly,
without a trace of harm.

Even now,
after all these years,
I use the same jar.

And as I think of that,
the anger, the sadness
that had lingered
just moments before
fade away—

and I find myself
smiling.

The girl
is still there,
watching me,
unchanged.

                                            Written by Soranoiro