Karina G-Lopez
Gloves
When the gloves come off
The latex stink lingers
My hands are sweaty and saturated
With a white powder residue
My hands look ghoulish
Fingers like long raisins
Nails are dull and without shine
The lines inside my palms
Remind me of roots
It is all unappealing
Those lines remind me
Why I wear those gloves in the first place
I stop complaining
I am relieved for the moment
And do it all over again
Tomorrow
—Submitted on
Karina G-Lopez is a co-author of the play Live Big Girl. Her poems have appeared in Stuck in the Library, Acentos Review, Epopeya Magazine, and other journals, as well as in The Abuela Stories Project (Robles-Alvarado, 2016), edited by Peggy Robles-Alvarado, and other anthologies. Online at kglopez.com.
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