I’m your marionette
You pull my strings
With all the force you like.
My head will nod
My feet will trod
Whichever way you like.
My body lies
In your control
Just the way you like.

- p. winter

You can gain a lot in a year.
Enough to hide what once was
Or once wasn’t
On display.
But never enough to
Eliminate what always has been
And always will be
Hidden in the crevices.

- p. winter

This body
Has been with me
For as long as I have lived

Why must it
Betray me so

- p. winter

I remember the period
Of rich, suffocating gloom
That I've written of
Millions of times before.
But more than that
I remember when
Flowers bloomed
And I laughed for the first time
In two months.
I wish I could remember
What was so funny
Or with whom I was so content.
But I remember
That the feeling
Inside of me
Was dangerously wonderful.
So I promised
Right then
To never go a day
Without a giggle
Or two
Again.

- p. winter

I lowered my standards for you.
Not because you were anything less than wonderful,
But because I used my fear of imperfection
As an excuse to protect my heart.
But you, and your imperfections,
Are perfect to me.
- p. winter

i used to write in the third person
the girl in my poems
a foreign character

but now i live what i write
and i write what i live
and i make sure the world knows
who i truly
have become

- p. winter

Perhaps the most
Difficult challenge
I've had to face
Is trying to believe
I could ever be
Remotely worthy
Of your love.

- p. winter