When will these invisible armies recede?
These murders, these lichen-gripped cenotaphs
My neighbors, my brothers will you dismiss me?
Feast on my currency, on the enamel that holds my heart
That candied apple, will you tear away
The sweetened plastic sheath and disregard
The grainy flesh underneath?
Do your eyes follow the slope of my breasts?
The slope of my breath as it escalates in plain sight?
Will you step on my bones,
Rip the nuance from my smile and if the mold
Cannot be made to shelter will you break me?
What a terrible crunch the soul makes.
I do not need to be a miracle rising again
A new woman for every trend and occasion.
I do not need your idols, your face, your laws
Your prejudice I know who I am
So why must you root me out and say
That I am not fine, not sane, not prosperous
When it’s your mirror that breaks.
Why must I apologize when I have lived gently
Despite the cradle of your violence
Despite your persistence, always turning,
To forgive is a miracle, to forgive is a hex.
mindlovemisery 