Freckles

My mother used to tell me, “A face without freckles is like a sky without stars.”

and I wondered if the same held true for scars because my body is marred

by more than the sun’s unprompted kisses.

My nose, knuckles, and knees are all blessed or blemished,

With experience and memory, stories to be told

And like the Greeks of old they are scattered across my sky.

My night was bright; twinkling with constellations; stars shooting across skin

And I tried to fall in love with the darkness I felt within

But as faces of blue sky, in different hues, with eyes that charted my cheeks

Passed by, my stars light dimmed in the daylight.

These spots like spilled coffee, shot me with insecurity

I turned my sight from celestial bodies to the scrutiny of my own

All that I had cherished, shifted to embarrass. Was my skin a mark of sin?

a reflection of the heavens or marked imperfection?

Doubt is a powerful thing, making the romance of my universe a curse

Causing my mythology to reverse and question my worth

What fool would choose the night over the clear day?

Why must I pay for walking in the sun?

So I traded it for the dark, hid the light in layers

Painted cheeks to hide the sparks, tried to smother my flame

And the smoke, with nowhere to go choked my heart and my soul,

Broke a piece of the whole, so that everything was shame

My body, heart, my name, till realization came

This flower cannot blossom without light from day and dark from night

I must till my speckled soil, gardening with love remembered

Pruning my dulled perception, reminding me of how I shine,

Not reflecting like the moon, but my own source divine

My gaze must be warm to remove all these layers

Helping me to heal and care about the goddess within

The Sun is just one star, and I’ve a cosmos to compare

I’ll excel in the fire, eating up their solar flares.