"I’ve got rage in my throatHot coals like screaming in empty houses.I’m tearing through things I..."

“I’ve got rage in my throat

Hot coals like screaming in empty houses.

I’m tearing through things I used to love

Easy as tissue paper—

The shrapnel of them too soft.

Nothing to throw that doesn’t drift downward.

But I can feel my insides collapsing

Toward the singularity in my chest.

My heart: the star gone supernova.

I will not apologize

For being so big I was insurmountable.

I will not say sorry for the fury in my blood

That had me burning hot

When you wanted me tepid.

I will not be small for you.

I will bear my teeth and dig tunnels through mountains.

Because I am magma and lightning.

I am a young Earth: red and broiling.

I am primordial hunger in the belly of the beast.

I am no

Wilting flower.

I am a force of nature

And I will not be soft for you.

Quiet for you.

Less for you.

I am tall and terrifying and terrible.

I will not ask for permission

Just because you said please.”

- Ladylike, by Ashe Vernon