I Am an Assimilated Form Striving to Become Unfastened

Once again I try — and fail — to strip down to my simplest form

I am a woman in a body

I am a human in a woman’s body

I am a creature with a vagina 

     & a womb 
            & milk-filled / empty breasts 
            to suckle — or fail to feed — any child I birth / miscarry

my body parts taped together / my skin tissue thin

I push & raise my head to the heavens / looking for succor
for some kind of god — or goddess —

listen to my howls — do I scream in agony
or sing in pleasure — tell me, who in this broken world doesn’t do both?  

Robin Michel has worked in nonprofits and education for most of her career, including as a teacher, preK-12 administrator, and a community organizer at the grassroots level. Her poetry and prose have appeared in many print and online journals, and she is the founder of Raven & Wren Press. Robin lives in San Francisco.