Acceptance

Day 11: 'Today's prompt challenges you to play around with the idea of overheard language. Write a poem that takes as its starting point something overheard that made you laugh, or something someone told you once that struck you as funny.'

Its not funny, but I thought I'd write about a question my seven year old granddaughter recently asked me about my tattoos, saying "you've got a flower on your foot. And one under your arm.  Why?" 


Acceptance

She points at the pictures on my skin,
Asks why? 

I don't want to share with her
My lifelong struggle to like my body,
My decision to celebrate the parts I like - 
My buxom chest - 
To distract from those I don't - 
My troublesome feet.

It's time the wish, passed down 
Through generations of women,
To become other, smaller,
Somehow more attractive -
As if our bodies weren't already worthy -
Stopped. 

Instead I say "it's pretty"
And she smiles and carries on drawing
Pictures of wild animal princesses.

© Copyright 2023. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved.


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