outside of the box

we arrive here naked, unencumbered 
only to be quickly swaddled in cloth,
socks and booties forced on our feet,
sleepers and onesies, snaps, buttons,
and safety pins; try as we might to
break free, to wiggle our bare toes,
to feel the breeze on our skin, eventually
we comply with humanity’s dress code
and spend a lifetime covering ourselves
in fashion (a term that makes it sound
fancy) as if the magnificent skin
inhabited by our soul was somehow
inferior, shameful even, best hidden… 
but those of us fortunate enough to live 
to be gray, with skin soft and thinning, 
who’ve grown comfortable 
as our souls begin to spill out,
some of us, I admit I am one,
relish losing the shoes and
the clothes, and the shame, 
planting our bare feet in tall grass, 
pressing our toes into the cool earth 
as the breeze kisses our skin 
under the glow of the  moon and stars, 
finally free to be as nature intended…
naked as the day we were born

~kat

Today’s glimmer…new tetras for the fish tank. This year’s long winter was hard on so many of us. We found ourselves without power several times. One time though when the temperatures were particularly frigid, we were without power for days…long enough to lose what was in our refrigerator, no water, no way to leave because we were iced in. We survived by wearing layers and huddling under blankets, but most of our poor little fish didn’t make it.  We were unable warm the aquarium water as the temperatures inside dropped day by day. I missed them. Miraculously two hearty souls had survived along with our big precious and catfish, but they looked so lonely. This past weekend we added some friends. The world feels restored, if only under my roof! Meet the fishes who brighten my day every day! 

NaGloPoWriMo 28 April 2025 Prompt:

Break the mold. Get out of the rut. Think outside the box.
Write a poem about a new way of doing something. / Recommended reading: “For When We Greet Each Other” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer