don't expect me to be easy
theres a fire in my gut
and i wont put it out
for the likes of
y
o
  u

Esther L. Krenzin

they promise to stay
but at one glance of your claws
they run away with their tails
between their legs.
Esther L. Krenzin

i know you
better than you know yourself
i have been here since the beginning
when you first entered the world
fresh from your mothers womb
i was with you
when you threw yourself at my feet
and beat the ground with your fists
i have been with you
all the times you wept on cool tile floors
wondering so desperately what went wrong
Esther L. Krenzin

because of you
i hated being a girl
you shoved hush
between my lips
and force-fed me the illusion
that i wasn’t allowed
to take up space
Esther L. Krenzin
Rogue song

i hold myself steady
under your frown
not allowing even a twitch
of how your disapproval chews away at me
to show on features so painfully bland
i've been dealing with thorns
for so long
that i no longer need gloves.

Esther L. Krenzin

mother
we are cut from the same cloth
you and i
we do not know how to be anything but
the giver
the helper
the lover
who bends over backwards
with no fuel
we split ourselves open for others
and wonder why it stings
when we sew ourselves up again.

Esther L. Krenzin