my fingers are like matches

because everything I touch turns to ash.

I swear my intentions are golden

and my goals are pure.

but I can’t seem to keep from burning bridges

and speaking singed words.

I used to think
The only way to not be
Scared of monsters was to become one

So I *did

Anxiety is like a volcano
Once your emotions build up too high
It all explodes
And its just like a volcano
Because its so hard to make it stop

I bid you all a fond farewell
As these bones turn to dust in capitalist shackles.
No more will my voice be silenced
By gender roles and repression.
My foremothers gave me my rights nearly a century ago
And you still act like it’s pocket change.
No more.

I will rise above this consumerist nation
And be heard.
Feminism means equality, not women over men.
Don’t take offense when I lock my car doors.
You’ve proven yourselves untrustworthy.
“Not all men.”
But enough men.

I am not backing down; I am not giving in.
I am breaking free of conformity,
Barely comfortable in the skin you told me was imperfect.
Flip-flopping your beliefs; I am never good enough for you.
But I will always be good enough for myself.

Years spent climbing to reach my destination,
A peak where I could breathe, a breath of emancipation.
No longer in the darkness, my mind is clearer now,
It seems so distant and faded looking back at how,
I was once so low I saw no climbing path or route,
I thought that suicide would be my only way out.
But I broke free from the darkness, I found a shining light,
I found my place of joy, to precede the endless plight.
I basked amongst the freedom, I laughed without a care,
It seems that I forgot that that place was ever there.
But now my luck is over, the dark is swift and cold,
I shudder all alone as I can feel it taking hold.
The fire that I once held has turned to ice inside my soul.
The darkness found its way again to bore another hole.
I no longer see the light; I no longer have the strength,
To climb this wall of torture or go to such a length,
To only find a solace for a moment oh so brief,
I’ll stay in my abyss to be consoled by my own grief.