ALL Magazine January 2016 | Page 20

I Enter Rooms I enter rooms in head lights, the way it has always been. Men will tell me chapters of my life read through green soil in fertile eyes. I will believe them, trained like a sealrewarded in tossed affection. My sex was handed to me like a trophy, my prized possession. Mine. You, raised in the safety of isolation, enter rooms running free. Your risk is only to yourself. I lose when the lights dim. Forgive me for what I love most, your masculine width protective. The way your hands hold a guitar, strong, yet careful. She is your lover. She shines as you enter a room. If only I could be as solid as wood. I know only of men and what they need; how to make them love my mouth which speaks so inadequately. The shame fills me with a bitter remorse. I try to reach beyond curves, erect things only to hide my inability to tell you this is who I think I am. I will let you swim in your lake of skin, run free back to woods and internal worlds, but I will not release or let go. All that is left to hold- your image, your chest breathing, heavy,