First,
I went for my words,
The i can'ts . i won'ts . iam not good enough,
I lined them up and shot them dead,
Then i went for my thoughts,
Invisible and everywhere,
There was no time to gather them one by one,
I had to wash them out,
I wove a linen cloth out of my hair,
Soaked it in a bowl of mint and lemon water,
Carried it in my mouth as i climbed,
Up my braid to the back of my head,
Down on my knees i began to wipe my mind clean,
It took twenty-one days,
My knees bruised but,
I don't care,
I was not given the breath,
In my lungs to choke it out,
I would scrub the self-hate of till bone,
Till it exposed love.

© Kayla Jackson