a body to use
#1
petite and tiny
but not small and whiny
an adult but youthful and sweet

sweep me away like a tree in a twister
my heart a hard and calloused blister
throwing me to-and-fro

then nurture me like a bird with clipped wings
my world, the palm of your rough hand

my heart is large
my bones are frail
my skin porcelain and silky-pale

dry out the windy river that paints my figure
with bundles of cotton and polyester

from head to toe
there's nothing to show
but a body to use when I surrender.
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#2
I think this paints a character really well. I really like your metaphors.
To make it better, I would add some contrast. An different point of view perhaps? or anything to make your piece less static, to show the reader a direction to go from here
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#3
This one is very intriguing. From the first four stanzas I believe it is about someone who feels fragile and has been through much difficult love and pain. The fifth stanza kinda lost me. I'm not sure how cotton and polyester fit into the story. Then the last stanza feels almost nihilistic but maybe I am interpreting wrong.
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#4
(09-20-2025, 01:10 PM)shady Wrote:  petite and tiny
but not small and whiny
an adult but youthful and sweet

sweep me away like a tree in a twister
my heart a hard and calloused blister
throwing me to-and-fro

then nurture me like a bird with clipped wings
my world, the palm of your rough hand

my heart is large

my bones your master
my skin blank plain smooth alabaster
 
dry out the windy river that paints my figure
with bundles of cotton and polyester

from head to toe
there's nothing to show
but a body to use when I surrender.

Look the thing is 'frail' indicates some sort of morbidity and it puts you off wanting to have sex with her. I don't know what the answer it really.
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#5
i feel like i've got nothing substantive to say other than just like. real. i cant really add anything bc it brings forth a pattern of thought in my head so completely theres nothing else for me to bring out myself.

on further rereading, i did find something to note. 
i find it neat how "to use when i surrender" kind of makes the subject of "use" ambiguous?
at once it is being used by others but also the speaker is using it, for the purpose of surrender. 
its a tool for the other and in the absence of anything else the speaker views it as one too.

also im reaching in the dark here but are cotton and polyester refering to like, a stuffed animal?
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#6
(09-20-2025, 01:10 PM)shady Wrote:  petite and tiny
but not small and whiny
an adult but youthful and sweet

Is this perhaps how the narrator wants to be seen as? Or maybe lying to themself as the poem goes on 

sweep me away like a tree in a twister
my heart a hard and calloused blister
throwing me to-and-fro

Since the narrator changed their identity from sweet and not whiny (or is this first stanza a facade when in reality they are struggling and feel deserved to be pushed around 

then nurture me like a bird with clipped wings
my world, the palm of your rough hand

my heart is large
my bones are frail
my skin porcelain and silky-pale

Perhaps they are in confused state to be abused but then want that nurture to feel love?

dry out the windy river that paints my figure
with bundles of cotton and polyester

from head to toe
there's nothing to show
but a body to use when I surrender.

Is this about hiding your true self -referring to the bundles of clothes to hide your body until you meet someone who you can finally show true self too or is it to go back to abuse?

I could be entirely wrong on my perspective. Either way it is written well especially if it is about struggling with who you are to who you wish to be. Sorry if I misunderstood.
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#7
(10-02-2025, 10:58 AM)awv-fitzy Wrote:  i feel like i've got nothing substantive to say other than just like. real. i cant really add anything bc it brings forth a pattern of thought in my head so completely theres nothing else for me to bring out myself.

on further rereading, i did find something to note. 
i find it neat how "to use when i surrender" kind of makes the subject of "use" ambiguous?
at once it is being used by others but also the speaker is using it, for the purpose of surrender. 
its a tool for the other and in the absence of anything else the speaker views it as one too.

also im reaching in the dark here but are cotton and polyester refering to like, a stuffed animal?

The observation of cotton and polyester being a stuffed animal is intriguing and adds a dimension to the piece
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