Until you have a name for it

Day 3 of The Seal: A 30-Day Micro-Memoir Series

You may know when it started

(around age nine)

You may know what came before

(You saw the blood)

(The urine)

(You heard the blows)

And you felt it grow

But you don’t have a name for it

so you hide it

you draw a veil over it

the way you might conceal an ugly birthmark

under your clothes.

Age twelve, second boarding school,

you may think you got away from them

but you …