We are taught that loving ourselves is sinister. We are asked to change. Generation F is abolishing these expectations by loving themselves wholly, by living their own truths—even when it is difficult.
We meet again
You’ve changed,
I say to my soul
standing naked in the river.
What a wild me
to have escaped from my chest
to have planted her feet in the riverbed
with hands stretching up and up toward the sun
like a palm.
Am I allowed to love her?
From here
my heart slams harder
against the trunks of trees.
Doubt balances on the edge of a leaf, then falls.
I love her more than anything.
I am the banks that watch
water carve paths unto itself.
A river cannot flow without walls.
I lean in for a kiss,
sunlight dripping from our shoulders,
water surging past our feet.