you have stolen my reflection

I do not recognise my body
this collection of buried
bones and bared limbs
that has carried me to here

my hands bent to hips
meet unfamiliar form
disconcerting firmness
where fingertips sank
into yielding roundness

what scars must be
waiting to appear?
this silent shedding
of flesh cannot be
without its marks

the strange desires
of men await me
stripped of old identities
I am visible to their lust
but what of mine?
I am only myself
in a shrinking skin

will you love me for
who I was in who I am
or only this newly
uncovered body
giving lie to the
beauty of my youth?

Winter afternoons

Prints available here

How to show someone who you are

Always start with a smile - beaming, grimaced, forced or fractured.... happy-to-see-you... afraid-of-what-you-might-see... I-can't-help-smiling-at-you... if-I-don't-I-might-cry. How to show someone who you are.

The way you laugh with different parts of you... the memory of the colour of your eyes when they're closed... the tilt of your throat when you listen... the scent of the inside of your wrist... the curve of your lip when you smile. How to show someone who you are.

The scars on your knees from before you grew up... the way you crinkle your nose before you sneeze... the creases in your upturned palm when you lie still... that sound you make when you start to cry... the look in your eyes when you hear something unexpected. How to show someone who you are.