Did you think me so naive?
That I am unaware of my incisions
The landscape tattooed on me, the trenches, the curvatures
Numbers of stitches each took
Precise color of each bruise
The mutilations I’ve borne
And how they spawned new ones, some in me, some in others
And I’m just supposed to believe?
That I am beautiful
No, that means nothing
Beauty is inauthentic, ugliness though
Ugliness I can trust
I wish you would show me sometimes, how ugly you are
You see, I can judge, it’s all I do some days
And I know precisely how much my soul weighs
It’s not a simple thing
To want to curse you to carry it
And so I won’t
Unless you curse me first to carry yours
So, please… just
Show me your skin