by Aerynne Aiudi

Created on: April 30, 2009

Naked Underneath My Skin

Naked. Underneath my skin.

The blood and bone, muscle and gristle, the me in me that makes me me is all in here.

Each cell uniquely designed to give me

My curly hair, my charcoal black eyes,

My love and passion for music, my powerful horse-like fore legs for dancing,

Chemically chained for almost a quarter of a century.

Feet still tapped out the rhythms though,

That saw me rain-dancing, moon-dancing,

Now moonlighting at the donut shop to pay for college to achieve my dream.

A dream that almost died within me at the long ago pronouncement of mental illness.

Coursing through my body, contaminating my blood and spirit,

Made aright most of the time with medicines for almost twenty five years.

But then, faith had to take over

Because all the doctors' pills and all the kings' horses couldn't put me back together again.

Merciful God and a stubborn insurance company which refused to pay for all my preparations,

Now see me primarily on vitamins and supplements bought at Walmart and CVS.

Becoming the doctor that I dreamed so long ago of being,

A dream embedded in the very skin underneath which I am naked.

Naked to sing, naked to shout, naked to run, naked to walk among the trees so tall.

My dreams were up there so high in the branches.

And now I pick their nearer by easier to reach fruits,

Sweet and succulent and yours because I want to share with you, and get you dreaming again.

Of being naked, unique, exposing and damning the lie that says we can't succeed.

What do they know? Everything? Certainly not!

We are the real ones, naked and free and strong, waiting to fly on dreams once again.

To recapture goals that were ours, to live the stories that make us us.

Only we're more interesting now because we are now naked and raw,

Minds exposed, doctors wishing they could be us and know what we know and see what we've seen

in our nightmares and visions without them becoming psychotic.

Naked in mentality, free in emotional scope.

Be you, be me, be young again in heart and spirit with the benefit of age's and pain's wisdom.

Be great, be naked and touch nerves medicated to be able to function in our 9 - 5 work a day world.

Your life isn't over and neither is mine because we are free and foolish enough to stump the wise.

Reclaim your dignity and be naked underneath your skin which is where the embers of our dreams

Lay waiting to be taken in hand once again, not to burn with the pain of illness,

But to shine with honor in order to embrace your God-gifted potential and life's goal.

Our goal? To be naked and to be great, to put the Y-O-U in "youniqueness,"

To change each tiny corner of our worlds so we can teach others to fly again,

to be unique and free and naked underneath our skin.

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