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comment by _refugee_
_refugee_  ·  3814 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Today's Writing Prompt: I'd Like to Be Whoever I Damn Well Please

I suppose I am cheating because this is an old poem. But I have a lot of difficulty with this prompt. For me, the question

| How do we go about feeling, finally, comfortable in our own skin?|

is something I've grappled with for most of my life. I write a lot about bodies. I think there's something inherently weird about having a body. I don't believe in souls but sometimes, to hear me talk about bodies, you'd think I do. It's not because I think we exist outside of our bodies but I often feel trapped in mine.

So for me feeling comfortable in my skin might be harder around other people but it's still something I have to deal with alone as well. My initial reaction to this question was "Change my body," and I don't think that's where you were going with that lil! Haha. My top two choices for mutant/superpowers would still be Mystique and Tonks.

I think to truly become comfortable in our bodies we have to accept them.

    #17


    I dream. I think…
                              …if I can shrink enough,
    my skin might lose its colored tone. Then we
    could look through it, and see my heart. It’s tough,
    worn down by stress, but still. We’d find my lacy,
    brittle bones and watch dark blood drive down
    the highways that my veins traced into place. The lands
    inside, revealed for once, are turning brown
    because drought spreads. The farmers protest, stand
    and raise their voices, but the weather will not change.
    What perfect skin! It digs itself into
    the grooves of my sharp skeleton, it feigns
    a perfect fit. Day by day it grows
    a little loose. At least it doesn’t sag. Each night
    it shrinks, pulls closer in. Then I wake up tight. 
In closing: I may come back to this and try to generate something new. But for now this topic has stumped me.

Maybe I can write something humorous about how I'd like to be a man and have a huge cock ;)





lil  ·  3813 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I think to truly become comfortable in our bodies we have to accept them
or change them and then accept them. In any event becoming truly comfortable seems to take time and experience living in our bodies. This is one area that affects individuals regardless of gender -- but particularly affects transgendered people who feel VERY VERY uncomfortable in their own skin.

Your sonnet is very moving - Is this from a series of sonnets?

_refugee_  ·  3813 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yes, it is. One summer I wrote 50 sonnets. From those I pulled out a collection of 5 that I called my "Starvation Suite." They were published online but unfortunately the magazine has now gone defunct, so I don't think the other four are available for reading anywhere. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

lil  ·  3813 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Good for you - 50 sonnets wow. That must have been a summer of longing or a summer of love. Which was it?

_refugee_  ·  3812 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It was actually a summer where I forced myself to write sonnets and only sonnets as a form of poetic exercise. I thought I was falling in love that summer, too, though, so it helped.