I Deserve a Love

Poetic Prayer – by Barbara Wilde, inspired by Frida Kahlo

Lorette Depois - Self Portrait - Acrylic on paper (21x29,7cm) National Portrait Gallery - London

I deserve a love that does not tremble before my light,

that doesn’t run when my soul expands,

that doesn’t reduce my body to silence

or my desire to a passing game.

I deserve a love that looks at me without fear,

that doesn’t flee when it sees itself in my eyes,

that doesn’t destroy what it cannot yet embrace.

I deserve a love that isn’t afraid of my past,

nor of my strength,

nor of my naked tenderness.

I deserve a love that knows my heart is a sanctuary

and my sex a prayer.

A love that makes love to my truth,

not to my abandonment.

I deserve a love that doesn’t explain away my feelings

with cold words or intellectual distance,

but walks into my silence with reverence.

I deserve a love that doesn’t throw its fears at me,

but carries them with courage.

A love that dares to stay when things become too beautiful,

too real,

too alive.

I deserve a love that doesn’t leave.

Not because I earned it,

but because it is ready.

Ready to love a free woman.

A woman like me.