My body is open
Open to a world that fails to see it's beauty
Open to people who fall in love with it's softness
Open to the mouths it feeds
With it's omnipresent nutrients.

My body is a shelter
Housing childhood memories in it's folds
Housing every insult I've ever been told
Housing brokenness, loneliness, benevolence
And everything in between.

My body is a complex
Built of bones and stitched together by muscles
A system which allows me to breathe
Fresh air in, bad air out
An industry of carpentry
Always building new things from the inside out.

My body will not be silenced
Should it be shut down
I will ascend and rise against
The violence that tries to oppress me.
It recognizes the winds and rain waging inside
And while I am not a hurricane
I live within the boundaries
Of a beautiful storm.