This Body

This body is a thing of beauty.

This body is the gorgeous stretch of scars

that link the pale, soft flesh of my chest.

This body has been home to babies I’ve held,

babies I’ve raised, babies I’ve loved,

babies I’ve lost…

babies I’ve grown and and nursed and passed on to arms that weren’t mine.

Babies I only see in photos, half a world away.

This body has been laid out like a map,

designed by callous hands and careful lips,

by affirmations,

by chance,

by acutely embedded wounds

and deep, diving devotion.

This body has been wrenched in two –

pulled slick and tight,

Pinned, irresistible rainbow prism light

caught in hands

massaged pink as rose quartz

and fingered bloody.

This body is divine.

This body is a holy trinity,

a come-to-Jesus,

a cool swallow of water,

grain of sugar on your tongue,

This body,

this body,

is mine.

© Laura A. Lord, 2021

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Thank you to MindLoveMisery for the prompt.