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.