Charity Bryson

twenty years buried behind this shield
of waxing and waning fat cells
protecting the heart of my sexuality
as lovers penetrated then abandoned my world

once, vindicated in my wrath
by men who would consume me
then acceding to the asylum of obesity

now crippling pain demands
that obesity relinquish its hold on me

vulnerability:
I stand on a precipice
staggering
between
armor
and
perilous love