Lunar Eclipse, MaryKate Stanich

Lunar Eclipse

By MaryKate Stanich

I found solace in other souls. Found beauty in anyone, but never noticed my own. I was searching for love in all the wrong places: in the back of dirty basements or across the cafe. I saw my string of lovers as an escape. Moving from one man to the next, one woman’s glossed lips onto another’s. If my body wasn’t in the arms of a strange lover, I hated every inch. I only ever saw my virtue when it came from someone else’s mouth. I focused all I had on loving everyone besides myself.

I, like the moon, reflected the light from my partner’s glow and had a cycle of going dark. I never learned to keep shining on my own. My soul had every quality I longed to find in someone else. Never realizing my beauty still remained when no one was looking.