Rituals of Arrival: After the Exhibit
By: Odessa Betancourt
Under curated light,
each piece aligned,
each flaw made right.
Emotion labeled.
Gesture staged.
Silence humming
in tempered air.
Stillness held
in climate control,
a fragile calm
to guard the soul.
What once displayed
concealed instead:
a mirror’s gloss
where truth had bled.
I learned to glow
behind the glass,
to call restraint
refined, surpass.
Hairlines fractures
split the face;
the lights flicker,
the frames unlace.
Maybe reverence,
maybe relief,
a whisper that safety
had silenced grief.
Now the body shifts its air;
paint curls back,
truth flares bare.
Rebellion glows
beneath the skin,
a raw unveiling.
My pulse returns.
I sign my name.
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