I ain’t mad, I’m chosen
but they gon’ feel this shift.
Tried to bury me in silence
'til my prayers started to lift.

This ain't no temper tantrum,
this that holy-woke-up pain,
from a mama who got bruises
but still baptized in the rain.

Don’t tell me to calm down
when I speak what y’all ignore.
I seen love turn into war
right behind a slamming door.

Tatted tears on a canvas,
they think I’m too much flame
but God ain't call me timid,
He called me by my name.

They lied and called it love,
they dipped when life got real,
but I ain't built from fairy tales
I'm built from scars that heal.

I ain't out here seeking vengeance,
I'm out here seeking peace
but if they think I won’t fight for mine,
they best not test this leash.

This rage? Ain’t reckless,
it's disciplined and divine
I learned to bite my tongue
'til blood became my wine.

And I ain't perfect, nah
but I’m standing in my truth.
My babies watch me rise,
so I turn rage into proof.

Proof that broken ain't forever,
proof that hurt don't win
'cause even when I'm shaking,
I choose God again and again.

So no, I won’t stay silent,
and no, I won’t behave.
This fire in me’s righteous
ain’t no soul I need to save...

Except my own.

Don’t get it ****** up
I ain’t hard ‘cause I never broke,
I’m hard ‘cause I broke open and built castles outta my own bones.
I stood ten toes down for a man that laid hands on me
yeah, I ate that pain, fed it to the fire in my chest,
came out with my crown straight, edges laid,
heart still big enough to hold heaven and hell.

I done fed folks who stole my last crumb,
smiled in faces that would slit my back wide open,
and I still showed up whole
that’s loyalty you can’t copy,
that’s God sitting in my spine saying,
“Get up, baby — they can’t **** what I keep blessing.”

I raised babies that ain’t come from me,
kissed foreheads that never carried my blood,
loved ‘em like my own ‘cause that’s just who I be
my love don’t check DNA,
my loyalty don’t clock out when it gets rough.

I’m the one who survived the silence
and the side eyes,
the half-*** apologies and the fake prayers.
I’m the hush before the boom,
the rose that bite back when you think it’s sweet.

See, they wanna know how hard I really am?
I’m the pretty with the pit bull bite,
the soft with the street in my step,
the prayer and the promise
I bend but I don’t bow,
I bruise but I never beg.

So speak on me gentle
my name got weight you can’t carry.
I’m the woman you can’t bury ‘cause I’m seeds and roots
and every storm they said would drown me
just watered my garden.

How hard am I?
I’m hard enough to still forgive,
still rise,
still stand ten toes for people who couldn’t stand for me.
I’m God’s favorite problem
blessed, battle-tested, still pretty when I’m ******.

Try me
watch me break your curses
with the same hands I fed you with.
I’m everything they said I’d never be,
and baby, I’m just getting started.

I’m that mother,
the one they whisper ‘bout when the streetlights hum,
the one who kissed bruises ‘til they bloomed back strong
but baby, test my calm and watch me turn storm.

Play with mine?
I’ll DAWG walk your *** ‘cross every block you claim,
drag your petty down the pavement,
make you swallow every rumor that tried to stain my name.

See, I break my back so mine never gotta bend,
I carry legacies in my hips,
dreams in my palms,
a whole bloodline stitched in my spit.

So come for me ,   come sideways for my mine
and I’ll show you how a mother loves with her claws,
I’ll show you how a saint can shape-shift to a savage,
I’ll make you pray to the same God you laughed at.

‘Cause I’m that mother
sweet enough to bless your plate,
mean enough to flip the whole **** table.
Try me.
Play with mine,
and I’ll DAWG walk your soul back humble.
Watch me.

We were never lovers
don’t romanticize it.
We were two ghosts
sharing the same graveyard,
two shaky hands gripping glass
like it was the only thing
that ever stayed.

We wasn’t soulmates,
we was cellmates
trapped in a habit that felt like home,
spoon-fed poison calling it loyalty,
thinking rock bottom was softer
if you landed next to me.

You overdosed
but don’t think I didn’t.
I OD every night on could-have-beens,
on your last breath echoing
in the back of my throat.
I’m alive
but this ain’t living.
It’s survival with a heartbeat
too stubborn to quit.

We never ****** for love
we ****** to feel human
for five seconds
before the demons came back,
and the high turned cold.
I watched you sink
I lit the pipe,
I watched you drift,
I told myself I’d follow
but here I am
still feeding the same demon
with your name on its fangs.

We were never lovers.
We were addicts.
We mistook poison for forever
and you just left me
with the half-life
of a promise we never kept.

So when they ask,
I say we never loved
‘cause if we did,
maybe one of us
would still be here for real.

You keep my name tucked under your bitter tongue
like poison you sip to feel powerful.
Keep runnin’ to them courtrooms,
spittin’ lies you can’t stand on
keep holdin’ my babies like pawns in your chess game.
But let’s get one thing straight:
I’m the queen on this board.
And I don’t fold.
Ever.

You think you got one up ‘cause you throw my name in the dirt?
Baby, dirt made me.
Pressure turned me diamond.
You forget who you playin’ with.
I was forged in the same fire you left me in,
and I came out swingin’,
heart still beatin’,
love still gold
better than you ever prayed I’d be.

You bitter ‘cause I left?
‘Cause I healed?
‘Cause I made somethin’ holy outta all that hell?
‘Cause you know you could never touch this heart again
and your pride can’t swallow that?
Yeah, I know you
Mr. Control the narrative, Mr. Sniff them lines,
Mr. Tell the judge your lies while I’m at home
wipin’ tears and raisin’ kings and queens
outta the pieces you tried to break.

Keep holdin’ my babies like they leverage

they mine by blood, by soul, by the prayers I whisper
when the world gets quiet and God leans in to listen.
You ain’t never gon’ cage this lioness, Andres.
Never gon’ break this mother who’d drag hell itself
just to see her babies free from your bitterness.

See, you don’t scare me.
Your powder don’t scare me.
Your fake tough don’t scare me.
I’m one of God’s favorites
go ahead, test that.
Try me
watch how truth dropkicks your lies into the light.
Watch how my name stay golden
while yours sink in the same shadows you hide behind.

You wanna play hard?
I’m harder.
You wanna play *****?
I’ve been cleaned by the same God you mock in your sleep.
Ain’t no paper trail or snake tongue
gon’ keep me from what’s mine.

So go ahead, baby daddy
keep thinkin’ you the villain in my story.
I’m the storm, I’m the flame, I’m the *******’ lioness
God built to roar so loud
the chains fall off my babies’ names.

Keep talkin’.
Keep lyin’.
Keep playin’.
Just know when that sun come up
and your shadows shrivel,
it’s gon’ be me
crown straight, eyes forward,
babies held tight,
heart made of fire and gold
untouchable, unstoppable, unbreakable.

Say my name right.

I’m the voice you choke down
when your smile lies for you.
The one that growls
when your pretty face can’t hide your war wounds.
I’m the echo that don’t need no hallway,
don’t need no mic
I boom in your bones
when they doubt you can hold your own.

See, I’m not here for small talk
I’m the full sermon,
the tear-stained gospel you preach
when you forget you’re holy,
when you forget your scars been baptized
in every storm you never bowed to.

I talk big
‘cause you come from big prayers,
big mistakes,
big nights crying into your own palms
til your demons tapped out.

I’m that backtalk when they tell you “sit pretty.”
I’m the slam of your door when you got your own rent paid.
I’m the hush in your head that says,
“Try me
try me and see if I don’t rise again
with a grin wide enough to swallow your doubts whole.”

I don’t whisper
I don’t beg
I’m that cuss under your breath
that tastes like freedom
I’m the word you can’t unhear:
ENOUGH.
Enough surviving.
Enough shrinking.
Enough burying your lion
just to soothe their comfort.

So say it with your chest:
You’re the mouth that bit back heartbreak
and spit out poetry.
You’re the lungs that learned to breathe in smoke
and exhale truth.
You’re the thunder rolling through your own ribcage
like you own every bolt.

Talk like the world’s listening
because it is.
Talk like you’re the last prayer on earth

because you might be.
Talk until silence is jealous.
Talk until your name tastes like respect
in their mouths.

And when they ask you who gave you permission?
Tell ‘em your soul did.
Tell ‘em your fire did.
Tell ‘em you did
and you’re just getting started.

My heart don’t come wrapped in caution tape.
It shows up raw
sleeves soaked in stories
I never got to finish telling.
I don’t do surface.
I don’t do safe.
I love loud,
I break loud,
and I rebuild louder.

I’m impatient
not because I’m spoiled,
but because I’ve spent too many nights
waiting on people
who said forever
but meant "for now."
I know what it feels like
to water dead things,
to fight for answers
in silence that screams.

Still
I chase patience
like it’s the only thing
that’ll keep me from burning bridges
I know I’ll miss.

Some days, I’m soft.
Other days, I’m smoke.
But every day,
I’m real.
And that’s rare.
I don’t hide behind pretty.
I don’t speak in filters.
You get all of me
even the messy parts,
even the parts I haven’t forgiven yet.

I give love like it’s holy.
Like maybe this time
it won’t leave me praying for closure.
I write poems in my mind
while people pretend not to see me
but I keep showing up
like I still believe
in the good kind of love.

My transparency
ain’t weakness.
It’s my rebellion.
It’s my power.
It’s me saying
I’d rather be felt too deep
than swallowed halfway.

So if I’m too much,
good.
That means you saw me.
That means my truth made you flinch.
That means I did exactly
what I came to do
be real,
and be unforgettable.