Sarah Edmonds

 

“Maybe I am lovely”

It bounces around my head

For six days.

I don’t feel lovely,

When I look in a mirror

Or stand all by myself

Or in a crowd.

I don’t feel lovely, I just feel tired.

Maybe the things I have to say are lovely

Or perhaps the words I write.

 

Maybe these aching legs

Were meant only to hold my mind

Closer to the stars from which it was forged.

My body, merely a vessel for big ideas,

For soft spoken words on Sunday

And a sharp tongue on Tuesday.

Maybe my body is a husk, whose sole purpose

Is to carry the musings of a girl

Who has gone half-mad

Into a world that is not yet ready

For what she has to say:

Maybe I am lovely—

But maybe not today.