༻᪥֎᪥🦋᪥֍᪥༺
I walked on stolen streets,
with my name tangled in shadows,
my skin an anthem they refused to sing.
Dignity stitched into every step,
I wore my identity like a cloak—
heavy with the dreams of those before me,
yet light enough to lift me
through crowds that crushed my breath.
They carved lines into my skin with their eyes,
whispered names I never asked for,
but I held my head high,
ᴍʏ sɪʟᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴀ sʜɪᴇʟᴅ ᴀɢᴀɪɴsᴛ ᴛʜɪᴇʀ ᴡᴏʀᴅs
that pressed down like hands on my shoulders.
🦋
In the marketplace of bodies and words,
I was ᴍᴇᴀsᴜʀᴇᴅ, ᴡᴇɪɢʜᴇᴅ, and found wanting
by mouths that refused to know my song.
In the white halls of work,
they handed me tools
not to build,
but to dig—
a trench where they hoped to bury me
beneath their assumptions.
The glances they threw were daggers,
sharp with the weight of a world
where I was always too much or too little.
But I, born of fire and dust,
refused to...