McKenzie Watterson is a Montana-born writer and educator. An MFA recipient from Stony Brook University, she now teaches writing and literature to incarcerated teens through the nonprofit Free Verse Writing Project. Her essay "Running Through Us" can be found in The Southampton Review. She is on Instagram @mckenzie.watterson.writes.
With my first blood, a scale appears, hard and iridescent in the soft skin below my arm. In bathroom mirror light, elbow raised, I press and prod, fingertips rusted from…