My Body and Black Friday
Lynne Schmidt
He tells me, he loves my body,
proclaims it as The Best Ever
like someone talks about Black Friday sales.
He wonders -
Why am I insecure?
Why do I close the door when I change my clothes?
The first time he devoured me,
he did not take the time to taste the salt build ups,
did not slowly open me
like a Christmas present.
He did not savor each tear
of wrapping paper removed,
heart skipping a beat,
grateful to see more of the masterpiece.
Instead, he tore open the package
clumsy hands reminding the toy
that it has one purpose,
and one purpose only.
I want to tell him
if he loved my body
he would spend some time with it
press his lips to my chest
his hands on curve of my spine.
Not just race
like the line entering the stores
when the doors open.
Lynne Schmidt is the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and mental health professional with a focus in trauma and healing. She is the winner of the 2021 The Poetry Question Chapbook Award, and the 2020 New Women's Voices Contest. Her chapbooks include Sexytime (forthcoming with The Poetry Question), Dead Dog Poems (Finishing Line Press), Gravity (Nightingale and Sparrow Press) which was listed as one of the 100 Best Breakup Books of All Time by Book Authority, and On Becoming a Role Model (Thirty West), which was featured on The Wardrobe's Best Dressed for PTSD Awareness Week. In 2012 she started the project, AbortionChat, which aims to lessen the stigma around abortion. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her three dogs and one cat to humans.