"In grade school, I pigeon-holed my skeletoninto any crawlspace I could findbecause little girls..."

“In grade school, I pigeon-holed my skeleton

into any crawlspace I could find

because little girls weren’t supposed

to have backbones.

I walked to school with my insides

on the outside–I never unlearned

how to be that raw.

That exposed.

I couldn’t fit the bones back

into my body, so with my skull

fitted over my head like a helmet,

I readied my softness for battle.

I was unashamed to be

the flower-girl in the combat zone.

One day, I would plunge my fist

into the pomegranate,

and dare them to make a victim

of Persephone.

I didn’t know that childhood fear

could grow into a rage this mighty,

but I will march with my beating heart

like a beating drum,

through the marshes of it’s own destruction.

I will come out on the other side,

and the blood in my mouth will be mine

and I will go kissing old wounds

with the copper tang of it.

I am scouring the Badlands of my body.

I am climbing the peaks of the words

they used against me.

I am painting pictures of dead men

on the palms of my hands, so

there will be no such thing

as surrender.”

- THE POMEGRANATE, by Ashe Vernon (via latenightcornerstore)