Magic with Skin On

by Morgan Nikola-Wren

Even now, she cannot stop searching for a way out of her skin and into a life that fits all her fire.

i introduce you to my tongue and it unfolds into who i wish i was who i am is still searching for the right words

there is nothing that leaves you feeling quite so small as having to shove all this being into your one allotted body

there's a sea of unsaid roaring through me; shy as white lace waves on a shore, but strong and stubborn enough to carry ships on their back

something in the dark of me is begging to throw open its windows

i don't love you, you know not yet but i could my stars, how i could

come back and kiss all this heavy off my heart

She takes to bed each night, dreaming herself between sheets of paper, then wakes with ink in the blacks of her eyes, so that the whole world looks dipped in story.