BAUDELAIRE
ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Today, our teacher handed each of us a pink cardboard and said, “Let’s explore the human body”.
She gave us colorful scissors and drew the arms, legs, torso, and head on the board. We repeated the names of each part.

While cutting my cardboard, my scissors slipped from my grip and pierced my thumb accidentally. Out flowed a small trickle of blood. I didn’t want anyone to notice, so I continued cutting, but I was so distracted that I ended up staining my work.

After completing my body, the sight of it made me feel sick. The arms were too small, the legs too thin. And then there was the red stain on the belly. I stuck it on the wall just like my classmates, but I quickly realized that no one liked it, not even the other little papermen. They began conversing amongst themselves, while my body remained secluded in a corner, all alone. The teacher didn’t sense anything and began explaining something else.

Before leaving the school, without anyone noticing, I discreetly detached my body from the wall. A small, almost imperceptible white stain remained.

When I got home, I hid my body in one of my brother’s old poetry books. There it has remained without making any noise for 30 long years.