Just Because I'm Naked



Just because I’m naked
Gives you no right to stare
I have my wrinkles, bumps and bruises
I’m more than enough
I’m more than aware

Just because I’m naked
Doesn’t mean I want to flaunt
I have mirrors
I know what they mean
I stare too
Look back at something I’m not

The naked doesn’t always show
The naked doesn’t see
The naked gives a peek at the life
The naked sets me free

Just because I’m naked
Doesn’t mean you get to have me
It’s my skin
My bones
My age
My vagina
My always-sagging breasts
My permission
I dare you to defy me

If you see me naked
You haven’t got a clue
Because my brain
My only brain
Protects me
from people like you

You scorn, you judge
You look
My pudge
We don’t see eye to eye
I can’t comprehend
I can’t belie
If I tell you my secrets
Will you believe the lies?


Just because I’m naked
And my soul has slipped away
You have no right
Your fucking privilege
To deny me
Refuse
Rebuff
Reject
Me!
I contradict that which you say

Just because I’m naked
You have no right to stare
Just because I’m naked
See through me
Around me
Inside me
I challenge you
If you dare

About this poem

I was looking at myself in the mirror, at all my body had been through over six decades, while listening to what the U.S. Supreme Court did to Roe V. Wade, and the poem just poured out in a matter of minutes.

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Written on August 12, 2022

Submitted by highaltitudemama on September 19, 2022

Modified on March 12, 2023

1:07 min read
508

Quick analysis:

Scheme Abxcb Axxxdx xexe Aexxfxxxe adgged hxfixixx Ajxhexcxej AbAeeedb
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 1,125
Words 226
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 5, 6, 4, 9, 6, 8, 10, 8

Stacey Powells

A published writer since 1996, Stacey’s stories have covered everything from parenting issues, local news, travel, and a hodgepodge of everything else. Her work has appeared in Island’s Magazine, Divulge Magazine, The Mammoth Times and Eastern Sierra Wedding Guide. She is a 2020 Community of Writers alumni, and a 2020 Jeff Arch Fellow. Her play Stirrups continues to be produced in theaters and her book of personal essays, Empty Cupboards, launches in October 2022. Stacey has several novels, plays and screenplays in various forms of development. Poetry is a new thing that can't be helped. more…

All Stacey Powells poems | Stacey Powells Books

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Discuss the poem "Just Because I'm Naked" with the community...

3 Comments
  • dougb.72572
    You mention the word naked, and of course everybody will look at your poem, Ma’am. Sort of a fun ride with a bowlful of grumpiness. But about half way through you lose the cadence and metre. Wirk on that. I know you can…Douglas Blair. 
    LikeReply1 year ago
  • WhyCantIUseMyOwnName
    Well, YOU might call it a poem. What Roe v Wade has to do with the state of your body at six decades is beyond my comprehension. The only thing I got from reading this was a sense of a bitter, rejected person being defiant, and making assumptions about what her nakedness was making others think. 
    LikeReply1 year ago
    • jackson_t
      It's not about you. I think that's the point. And the Supreme Court and Republicans in general want to control women's bodies.
      LikeReply1 year ago
    • jackson_t
      It's more about how the Supreme Court and Republicans in general seek to control women's bodies in general, and how people judge others by their outward appearances.
      LikeReply1 year ago
    • WhyCantIUseMyOwnName
      You are mistaken on all counts.. This benighted site takes our money, but refuses to provide professionals to judge our work, and leaves it up to all of us to judge, no matter what our capacity. And neither the Supreme Court nor the GOP want to control women's bodies. The Court followed the Constitution as written, which the exact definition of their jobs, and which they take an oath to do. ruling only that the Constitution does not codify abortion. The GOP are pro-Constitution, and what is more, regard, as virtually all scientists do, that mammalian life begins the instant the egg and sperm are untied. What happened to "follow the science!" Just asking. 
      LikeReply 11 year ago
    • Symmetry58
      Exactly. Some folks seem not to understand. Not to mention, a fetus is not a woman's body lest we all get humped around like human skin tags by our mothers until death do us part. All this politicization of every aspect of our being is way out of hand. LoL 
      LikeReply1 year ago
  • teril
    I like how you turn defeat into potential victory. "The naked sets me free." Great line.
    LikeReply1 year ago

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"Just Because I'm Naked" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/137969/just-because-i'm-naked>.

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