Affirmations in the Mirror

A poem by Bethany N. Bella

Look at you. All of you.
Your body is a beautiful expression of progress.
You are time in timeless sets of carbon and hydrogen and love.

You are not perfect. Nowhere near it.
Your skin breaks
your bone breaks.
You break promises,
break silences.

But
you also break boundaries,
break stereotypes,
break down hearts and keep knocking.

You are an impossible masterpiece.
Your skin fades in the clouds.
Your eyes sparkle when you’re in love.
You shrink. You expand.
You grow in mind and body every single day.

Your body is a vessel, so use her lightly, gently, and with the upmost regard.
Respect her. Feed her.
Let her sing when she feels lightness,
and let her cry when she feels darkness.

Don’t change her laugh. Don’t straighten her hair.
Pierce her skin and ink her arms if you must.
But don’t abuse her kindness, for she will crumble, as she must, to show she is not just strength, not just power, not greed, not invincible.
But you. Three letters in a lifetime.

Every ligament and fiber and eyelash and tear stain and prickling piece of skin that is you.