Show Me the Parts I’ve Forgotten
Transcribe the temporal into visual.
Memorialize me as the lover you
clung to under a shroud of time;
The divine vehicle who birthed
pure light on a four poster bed;
Picture me sacrificial, swallowed
by the tragedy of being human;
And if you believe me a part of
you, fashion me in your image;
To the ancestors that keep watch,
see in me my mother and catch
glimpses of generations passed
that once tickled the earth;
Understand that I am bones ready
to crumple, if not for the hand
that rests on my skull in blessing;
That I cannot see its owner.
I hang bare and ask that you
reimagine me in painting. That
each canvas dries into a phantom
limb with skin that finally feels
pastel warmth.
Though I think your fortunate eyes
cannot see it — for better or worse —
do not paint the shadow stitched
to my feet. I am eclipsed by it.
You will run out of color
as you try to paint the storm.