You left me feeling bare naked even when I was clothed
The look you gave me
The instant connected feelings left me feeling halved when you looked away
It left me bare naked
And I felt the draft you left behind
The feeling was so strong it made me want to cover up everything
I could see he saw my whole story
And I saw his too
We left each other bare
We left each other chilled and afraid of being vulnerable
And we had only walked past each other on the subway

tarnished child
who the zoo
is not new
to

time, present, past and
future
are all
redeemable

and I ought to
have told you
before

it's not a heart
beating
but a drumming
from before that
sounds like

a record of
its own accord

30 years,
bare and white
baring, daring, breathing

Right now I can think only about the one thing
That is real to me:
A stuffed bear.
Its fuzzy feeling
Reminds me of the good friend that
Gave me this treasure.
Separate from reality,
This bear does not deal with
Mistakes others made.
It cannot change
Like a person does.
It smiles with curious eyes,
A ribbon tied about its neck,
Seemingly preventing its first breath.
Sometimes people need to be more like
Bear.
Open to the world,
Curious,
But relatively unchanged by the environment
And people
At the end of the day.

One time someone told me I was beautiful.
Who knew I could be beautiful?
I hope he never changes,
Like my bear.

Each day, my rotten flesh
Is being picked away.

The scabs blossoming
With their rosy red smiles,
So crystalline
And bright.

And as I shed my winter coat,
The sad mass of green goo,
A figure, raw and sick,
Is left behind.

From thick
To thin.

Now ******
And bare,

Somehow this spring breeze
Is more like poisoned air.

Feeling torn down,
just waste on the floor,
is when I feel my safest,
because,
it’s these times
that I actually feel human.
Being stuck on the floor,
bare and sopping with tears,
let’s me know that I matter to myself

****** is not *******,
skin is not something to hide.
You are not a body with a soul,
rather a soul with a body
that you needn't be ashamed to show.
Feel the sun on your chest
and the grass between your toes
and breathe in contentment
as the wind writes poetry on your body
with it's gentle, kind mouth.
Do not be offended by human anatomy,
an elegant miracle held bare in its glory.

The vulnerability of baring myself fully
clenches the belly
panics the heart
stands my hairs on end.

It is truly the most terrifying thing
to stand in ones authenticity.

And yet. And yet.

The courage it takes.
The great tender strength.
The spine tingling elation.
The heart swells, and magic.
The naked beauty borne, in feeling you have nothing to hide.
The spirit touched ardor of a bare approach to life.
The openings and the mystery.
The expressions: tripping, falling, incomplete, misguided.
The wonderful mistakes, elucidating lessons.
The perfect imperfections.
The easing of honesty.
The engendered humility.
The profundity.
The sense of being touched, touching, and in touch with life.
The unmasked revelations, of full spectral undulation.
The this. The that. The I can accept it all.
The dropping of shame.
The incredible liberation, in shedding that shame.
The finding forgiveness for self, for other.
The quiver of unknowing.
The sweet caress of potential.
The dread. The sorrows. The uncertainties.
All making room for, in their acknowledgement:
Room for what else is there.
Room for laughter, and joy, and luminescence.
Room for flirtation, dancing, spontaneity.
Breaking open.
Melting into Love.
Soaring on the wings of Truth.
The hush, of anxious worry.
The Goodness bestowed.
The empathy.
The compassion.
The connection.
The holy restoration of creative flow.
The fires of real passion.

And everything.
And everything.
And Beauty.