I believe the humanbody is sacred I believe in a divinity within I believe in a temple yes each door anointed with a different holy water blood over this one tears over this one menses over this one urine over that yes I believe in miracle in and miracle out I believe we really are what we eat so I eat miracles in breathe miracles out pyramidal romanesco miracle of meristem dodecahedral pomegranate miracle of blood-red gem eels with iridescent skin miracle of sea and fat-cell wells of energy miracle of me I believe my humanbody is sacred I believe this probably because I spent years on its meticulous destruction but things changed I would never set fire to a temple now so I believe my humanbody is sacred I believe myself to be a survivor I believe I owe my survival in some part to the love and care others have afforded me but in large part to the love and care I have afforded myself it was not easy I believe the truest things are not easy to do but easy to love doing like sweeping an altar daily visiting a grave it was not always this way here is how it started I believe I might as well have been switched at birth born as I was with my father’s bushy eyebrows my mother’s sensitivity and nobody’s bright blue eyes the women of Guanajuato said I looked like baby Jesus I believe not in where are you from but in what place does your heart refuse to leave so maybe I come from Mexico in one kind of way but I believe in my city now I’ve believed in her since I was three years old since I was old enough to plant these pale baby Jesus feet on her concrete and walk on it like water yes I believe I will always come from the city I learned to walk in I don’t believe there’s a better way to remind myself that I am sacred I believe I was six or seven when I began to know my body though I did not yet know it to be sacred I figured out my thighs looked bigger in horizontally striped tights I wouldn't wear them Jen and Lisa taught me the word feminist Lisa said Hello Kitty is a feminist Jen said Barbies are bad dolls because they have humanbodies basically I figured out feminists probably did not think about their humanbodies let alone think of them as sacred well I believe I was ten by the time I had it figured out that my humanbody was a womanbody too I believe I was twelve when I scolded myself like a dog bad feminist ba-a-ad feminist I believe there is no such thing I believe I was losing my way how could my body be sacred when women were supposed to suck dick and stick their heads in ovens I believe it took all these years on my knees to believe what I do now yes I believe the humanbody is sacred so I believe in Whitman when he sings the body electric I believe in you Walt your bath of birth and your merge of small and large and your outlet again I’ve been born too you know I believe in Deren when God damn it! I still pee I believe in you Maya even though it’s nineteen thirty-eight and you’re a woman I piss too you know I believe in Plath when she decries her heart a braggart I believe in you Sylvia I’ve heard mine taunting too you know I believe in Nin when she reasons against her love of June I believe in you Anaïs not in your defense but in the truth of your heart which is so very clear to me I’ve loved a woman too you know I believe in Dylan writing songs to Woody not yet twenty I believe in you Bobby I’m just seventeen and a girl besides but I have my icons too you know I believe in Lamantia when he sings the beauty of bodily touch with his muse Blue Grace I believe in you Philip I want to sing too you know I believe in all your songs I believe in mine too you know I believe I sing something just as sacred.