This felt really disjointed to me the first two or three times I read it. I think I get it now — the MC’s body almost literally falls apart when faced with hate but is nearly indestructible when lavished with love — but it was definitely a difficult piece for me to interpret. I’m not sure if that was your intent or just me being particularly dense.

I was right there with you, physical manifestation of emotional integrity or lack thereof. Though, for the record, leprosy is painless, which is incidentally why they lose body parts.

That gory bit of information aside, I liked it. At first I was thinking it might be a bit too melodramatic, but it worked out in the end for an effective metaphorical story.

I have to agree with THX, it’s a very well told emotional metaphorical story.

Heh, so apparently my reading comprehension was lacking the other day when I read this. ;-)

ah metaphorical skin, i kind of got it the first reading, but the comments cinched this. I think it was the tone and the disjointed sentences; it read like a poem, more than a story. It’s a very beautiful piece though.

Poetic prose perhaps?

Poetic prose huh? I’ll go with that!

I guess my friend was right when she told me that poetry has a way of sneaking into my prose.