Wednesday, April 8, 2026

I Belong to Me by Devi Nina Bingham

I belong to me, for you never claimed me

though I waited in fallen shadows deep,

waited like the aimless moon which time carves up and keeps,

like a harvested, hallowed-out pumpkin heap.


And you, never waiting, nor pausing, nor sighing;

never looking, nor seeing, nor laughing, nor crying

could not find two cents worth of tailored cloth

to give a care and cover my fears of darkness and loss,

though bitten were we by the hungry, vain moth.


And fortune (or God) smiles upon this unfortunate heap

of chaotic flesh and dances when we

hope for love while drowning in the unforgiving sea

it escapes us that, I belong to me.


Fears of being swallowed by love's great noose

that stopped your wild roving and weighted your feet

while I dreamt you'd be my rebel on the loose

who could meet my desire as the years did creep.


Suddenly, I belong to me, and for the first time

 the blind Winters of belonging now brightly shine

in the shrinking house I had built to last

still leaking from the ramshackle past.


Dutifully kneeling, then standing on my own

fly until you rest on a statue made of stone

like one lonely gull upon a restless sea,

silently calling, I belong to me.



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