For so long we have been told that these bodies
Are stumbling blocks for mans’ morality
We have been told to pick and pull at these bodies
like moldable clay pieces at the hands of someone who was never our maker
We are told to be counterfeit realities of a entertained fascination
Orchestrated by Photoshop
But they neglect, the fact that we are human beings
Breathing and living and crying and wondering
Was I made all wrong?
Is there too much curve in this shape?
**Too much flat in her chest,
**Too little grace in her bones?
I have tried to live on a thin line of embracing these love handles
And being too much to handle in order to love
Living life as an attempt to be seen beautiful in everyone else’s eyes but my own
So afraid that if no would dare get close enough to hold me,
sit me down tell me girl, you were created for beautiful things
Slowly, we are becoming more built on the lies being force fed into these bodies
That we’ve forgotten what truth tastes like
I want to know that I don’t have to be a size anything
in order to be told that I am worthy, enough, worth it
I want to end this fragmented idea that we are only puzzle pieces until someone else comes along and sows value back into these frames
– we are already whole
I don’t want to give life to anymore seeds planted in this gut
that needed to be uprooted a long time ago
I want my daughter to know, that she is nothing porcelain
She is not someone else’s masterpiece
She is more brick house
Than temporary home
She is a lighthouse, always guiding, always leading
And no one has to tell her when to stop shining, because it’s already her job
That she is more temple than ally way
She is no ones passing through
Tell her that, Darling, don’t let anyone trace out the atlas of your own maps
Do not let them re-write your namesake
Tell her, that her creator already said _it was good
_very good
when he took his first glance at you
Don’t let anyone take that away from you
For so long we’ve been told that these bodies are not ours,
It’s time we told them differently.
Photos by Kimberly Jurgens