Body Beautiful

I am with you

My Body

Though I pummel and curse you
Though I pinch with disgust
Though I leave you to rust.

I am mistaken.
My hips are not scars of fat
Wrought through years of
Blameless eating
But immovable
Unshrinkable
Bone.

Deep-rooted flesh-fear
-Garden-variety
Callous and stubborn-
Grips me in
False hope
And cruel expectation.

Though loathing boomerangs
Through cracks on
Rainy mornings

  I summon

With every mirror-glance flinch

  I summon

That unthinking child-delight
The feel of toes in grass
And tickled bellies

   I summon

That Pre-Edenic bliss
To shake off
The yoke of the strict silhouette
Now
In the summer of my life.

I cup my stomach with love
Tap my hip bone
Neat under my soft skin
My talisman for reality
Switch my lens from fashion
And fit-as-virtue formulae
To compassion
For my own
Personal
Symmetry.

Please know that I am with you.

My Body Beautiful.

I am trying.