When I get out I'm going to ask someone to touch me
very gently please and slowly, touch me
I want to learn again how life feels.
I've not been touched for seven years, for seven years
I've been untouched out of touch and I've learnt to know
now the meaning of untouchable.

Untouched- not quite
I can count the things that have touched me

One: fists
At the beginning
fierce mad fists
beating beating

till I remember screaming don't touch me
please don't touch me

Two: paws
The first four years of paws
every day patting paws, searching
-arms up, shoes off legs apart-
prodding paws, systematic heavy, indifferent
probing away all privacy.

I don't want fists and paws
I want to want to be touched again
and to touch
I want to feel alive again
I want to say when I get out
Here I am please touch me.

Courtesy of AAPP Website: https://www.aappb.org