i want to be loved without
            asking for it.
    i have been starving for the taste
since i was born. my parents made my body
    a black hole—
    always reaching. never close.
i look at the stars & ache for them. want to pull them from the sky & swallow them whole.
    i was not raised for wanting.
    it frightens me, my desire. it is bigger than any room.
i may have grown into violence, but i can
            love gently,
become a revelation with my lips on another girl’s mouth.
    watch her sleep & let myself dream of a love that feels like a heavenly body.
    a love that goes straight through me, like a beam of light.