Do Nothing Without Intention
I want to love my body at night as I do in the morning.
I want to sing her love songs and light candles and remind her that
she will always have rose petals beneath her feet to adorn her path.
Make her a fresh cup of chamomile tea to ease the day away.
I want to show her tenderness and kiss her scars
and tell her that she is the sun.
I want to love her wholly and deliberately.
I want to love her in the stillness and quiet calm of the night
as I do in the light and warmth of the morning.
I want to admire her reflection in the mirror and
lose myself in her newfound softness.
I want to tell my inner child
"it’s okay to feel uneasy in your home when the foundation changes."
Remind her that she is always the sun, even when she feels eclipsed.
I want to tell her stories of how much light she has shared with the world,
and how she may have saved a life with a smile, or a hug.
I want to bottle her essence.
And on days when she needs a gentle reminder
of the home she has been to others,
I will open it with a solemn prayer and tell her quietly
that this is why you’re still blooming above ground.
Lilith Rising
I used to go looking for love in bodies that never
sought to keep me warm or make me cum.
How out of touch and cold I felt waking up alone together
with an almost lover.
How his caress lingered like winter
against my spring skin no matter the man.
Running to my little black book always meant
running away from myself
because all he craved was my flesh &
I craved conflating his selfishness with desire
and I got caught up running around in circles
for pleasure that was never bound
to find me in the matrix of any bedroom.
I realized I was gluttonous, so I began fasting.
Celibacy expanded me.
Cracked me open & made me whole.
And now a man knows the cost of admission to my soul
will be surrendering his own.
He knows now that his mouth will always be at
the gate of a temple when we make love.
God is a woman, and I dare you to argue with me
because when I made real love to myself I found her.
I love her without lack.
I love her with wild abandon.
Every inch, every crevice, every stretch mark,
every scar on the surface of her skin, her heart, her spirit.
I love her so fiercely, they’ll need a diagram
that doesn’t exist when they try to cut me down.