Your body is your vessel

It will travel miles farther than where your head has taken you

It is your storage unit

A unique container of your individual world

It is a plaque of scars

Self made or life inflicted

It is your machine

Each piece of you with a million specific tasks

Able to work in perfect harmony to create, 

say, a poem

or a harmony on strings

and when coupled with another,

even a child

And I beg you to allow that child to own their body

Teach them to smile at their reflection without fear

and when they see their face,

A malleable portrait that will be so quickly carved with tears

and dirt and grins

let them relish in the idea that it is their own

The world will try to take your sanity

They will turn off your lights

scream over your voice

and push you back into the crowd

they will knock you down

But do not let them bury you

Life will leave it’s scars

but underneath the world’s turmoil,

underneath those tracks of tears and tears and bruises

is your face

it belongs to you

and you belong to it

and belonging is beautiful

let go of any fear of yourself

because no one, 

no one can take you away from you

accept your face

show off your face

declare your body

own your scars and one day

you will leave a beautiful scar on the world