A Touchable Thing

(Above Photo by Todd Ellis)

My Skin Became a Touchable Thing

by Cassie Premo Steele

I borrowed clothes,
and thought I was someone
different.

I was accepting compliments for who
I seemed to be
becoming.

But I shivered,
in blue and black
layers of sweater.

I could not get warm
until I took it off.

And then my skin
became a touchable thing.

Like the selkies
who find warmth
in the wet water
of their true seal
covering.

I dove, deep,
and found another body, my own,
waiting for me,
after all these years,

young
and on fire

not with what was

or would be

possible,

but in the presence
of what was being given

just then.