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"Many Scars"

By Sheri Astorino, aka Shiraz

I was diagnosed with MS 1/8/08 but I've had symptoms for a few years. This poem was written for a Sociology class. Not everyone knows that "many scars" is used when referring to MS.
I'm an adult student (43), am finishing my English degree, and I have a toddler. So life is busy and I'm just trying to cope and carry on. Writing helps.

 

I am not my body

And my body is not yours

This poetic justice

Has come full circle

Many scars inside this body

Threaten to leap

From my skin

Now you know, now you know

You cannot touch me

I am untouchable

That summer night

So fresh and innocent

Remember his salivating glare

His dark side revealed

So close he could almost touch

What would he say now

If he knew, if he knew

Would he still want me

Or has he crumbled, disintegrated

Gone back to the earth

A shallow grave

He was not the first

To hurt me with a stare

A disrespectful glare

But he cannot hurt me now

I have a secret

My body, this body

This glorious, full, breathtaking body

Is not my body

It is a shell of many scars

And I am not my body

I am not my scars

I am spirit

I am poet

I am not my body

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