exposed

I stood naked before you last night
and today wake with the uneasiness
of a woman exposed.
You say you would know all of me,
even those tattered fragments
I have worked so earnestly to hide.

I guard my heart like a jewel and offer it
to no one.

So what have you done to make me question
whether to surrender all, just like that,
hard-kept notions of self-protection
reduced to such simplicity?
I have been so careful, so clever, yet
you find doors I painted shut.

I have allowed you to enter me.

I touched your body last night
and the rest of the universe disappeared.
You and I were utterly alone in our nakedness.
My desire for you shattered my vulnerability
and now I fear what I have allowed myself to do.

I am Eve after the fall.

Take any part of me you wish, any part that pleases you.
It is yours, all.
To give pleasure without the slightest inhibition,
to allow hands and tongues and fingers to
explore completely, this is my instinct.
To take excitement for my hungry body
from your own, this is my breath.

When you would have me lower
my carefully-crafted defenses, your desire exceeds
its bounderies.
I am unaccustomed to such and am left today
trying desperately to cover my exposure.

You do not know what you have done.