Words are like paint
your voice is the brush
The image though spoken
both vivid and lush

Each page but a portrait
your canvas when bound
Today and tomorrow
—eternity’s sound

(The New Room: August, 2023)

Stripped bare

Lost yet aware

Battling the confines of
Perception
And
Projection

My back covered in the lashes
Of what you expect of me
My blood
painting a picture
of who I will never be

Stripped bare

Lost yet aware

Skin reforming
You tried to mutilate and manipulate
But the scars are evidence of my warning

This is me transforming

Stripped bare of your limitation

This is liberation