Finding Fierce

The velvet softens, shifts. 

Lines settle into the landscape of my hands

a map society attempts to render invisible, 

a texture they no longer know how to crave.

I sit in the quiet light of this empty café, 

running a thumb along my wrist, 

feeling the deep, altered grain of my flesh

fuller now, unyielding, 

no longer molded for their appraisal.

The male gaze was always a fleeting creature

a passing hummingbird 

drawn only to a flower at its peak, 

tasting the nectar, 

careless and gone, 

blind to the enduring roots.

They traded in the illusion of my youth, 

calling it a pelt to be won. 

Let them look away. 

This skin remains my own

unbound by their hunger, 

untamed by their absence, 

untouched and fierce.

October 2026 Poetry Project

Day 28 of 31