He lapped up all the spills, falling from my heart, leaking
for my mouth like a sponge yielding it saturation. He lapped it up and the connection
beamed through him like a sun split blessing for having sentiment sense.
I’m a fighter.
I am more fighter than artist.
More fighter than educator.
More fighter than female.
More fighter than human.
And when he laps up all undulating overflow of my soul, I
want to fight to contain myself, want to fight by creating mountains to excuse
the mess. I fight nothing but my own demons in his absences and I convince myself
that exaggerated space is necessary protection. This is game I’ve played my
whole life, a game of perpetual lose; a warrior’s scampering for cover, for
freedom.
He walks around with his eyes lensed in beauty. And when he
looks at me, swept in the formulas of aesthetics, I do not understand what he
sees. When he looks at me and he says I am beautiful it is as if I engender the
rules of design quivering with a pulse. I do not understand what he sees, only
know that the moments he calls me beautiful, he relishes the acknowledgement;
he radiates validation as if the discovery of beauty is the impetus of his
existence.
I do not understand what he sees. I just have to trust what
he sees.
And it is exactly that place that I am most weak.
And there it is again. The impulse to fight.
I want to fight to prove that I’m strong.