Home is
   Longing for a different view
   Sitting in a tiny bedroom, watching the birds fly
Envious of their freedom

Anywhere else I
   Feel the incessant tug of my family that want me back
   Simultaneously longing for the Friday night card games
And laughing with my mother

Your body is a sanctuary

I look at you and
I see the places you have gone

Your body is a spaceship

What textures have traveled beneath your fingertips?
What sights have you seen?

I worship at your temple
Bless me with yourself

to be loved in the open

this is all I can ask

as a girl who has been
   kissed only in dark corners
   pushed out of view at the last second
   always unclaimed

the darkest days were the ones where
   old loves pretended not to know how they knew me
   my body felt used and cheap

discarded. my dear,

I ask to be loved in the light

and claimed

Boy,
I don't mean to sound like a *****,
But take your arm off my shoulders.
This body is mine.

Don't slide your hand up my leg
Like your fingers are lost and looking for a home.
Don't assume that I want to touch you
This body is mine.

This body,
She has climbed mountains
And swam in the ocean,
Walked through forests and crowds and battles
Like you will never know.

If I am hesitant to be with you,
Know that it is not your right
To be offended.

I am striving to reach
Peace
With this vessel I call home,
I will put her first.

I'm not sorry to tell you:
This body is mine.

running into the people I've lost
is like seeing ghosts

around town
across the street
hoping you don't notice me
or the knots woven into my stomach

duck my head and
block out the memories
of the time when
you walked by my side

if you've floated out of my life
do you blame me for startling

you're an apparition