Ariel

I heard it scream

My skin

At birth

It longed, fumbled and wrinkled

Peeling away the softness

Preparing me for toughness

I heard it scream

My skin

Layered with ancestral pain

And burdens my eyes could not project

I heard it scream

And I lost myself in its sound

Fading Fading slowly into the background

Confirming the narrative