Virginity:

 

By Shanti Lunita Bartz

 

We braced ourselves,

Dear bodies,

For the breaking and the bliss.

 

In the adolescent bunk,

atop the lavish bedding

We spread out like sunbathing children

Grasping for thick pebbles in the sand.

 

And isn’t it beautiful.

 

How we waltz with laces crossed,

using toes as stepping stones

To the all the places we’ve forgotten,

And all the nooks that we adore.

 

We take the raft out for a sail

among the deepened blue

The turbulence is artfulness

A clumsy devotion to the dance, and solem you.

 

And no, I’m not afraid,

And yeah, I’ve been afraid before,

But I learned gentle hands caress the best,

And its your fingers I adore.

 

But ain’t it beautiful,

And wouldn’t I know.

If all I had were roses

With their thorns I would adorn.

 

We build our place beneath the bedsheets

Breathing fire down our backs.

Maybe one day home will be a safer place,

To expose our skin like artifacts.

 

How beautiful,

Our cunning,

Our self-assured and cocky strides.

As spines extend, contract again, we expose our homeless pride.

 

Aren’t we beautiful,

That’s something that I know;

That one day we may part our ways

But love,

You’ll always be my home.