Today is not the day I die

Standing tall like a mountain
Feeling like a mole hill
Feeling like a mine shaft
Filled with bursting dynamite
Dangerous to all who trespass
Worse for the workers
Subjugated to the whims
Of cold rock walls
And endless black pits

Today is not the day I die

Quick like lightning
Feeling like a storm
Breaking over the heads
Of innocents, of rich and poor
Pushing with winds too furious
Stealing away hats and scarves and comfort
Drenching in freezing rain
That feels a bit too much like
Being reborn

Today is not the day I die

Shining like the sun
They say stars are brightest
Just before they supernova
Just before they fall into themselves
Become something grander, more powerful
Something that devours all that it meets
A great abyss, feeding on itself
On light
All consuming

Today is not the day I die

Perhaps I am no mountain,
Perhaps I am no star,
No black hole, no sun,
No molehill or mine shaft
No wailing wind or breaking storm
No rain, and no lightning
Perhaps I am but a girl
But metaphors are my armor
and similes are my sword
I am no knight in plated silver
I am only a poet, armed with prose

I will not die today

God gave leopards spots
Zebras and tigers stripes
Hyenas fur and fangs
Lions a bright and gilded mane

But humans have but their skin
Pale or copper, thick or thin
Veins and white blood cells
Bare feet, bare of claws

How then, are we expected
To show the dangers we possess
If not gifted with fangs or fur?
If only given soft skin?

My ancestors in the Americas
Painted their skin with bright colors
Palms red with berries and
Faces covered with the designs of their gods

I am but a teenage girl
A goddess in no sense, a weakness
My force upon the world no greater
Than the force of a worm in dirt

I have no thousand year old dyes
No golden mane of hair but
Bright berserker eyes
and a force of will like gravity

I have glittering lipstick
My own brand of warpaint
Against all things that make me
Feel small, ugly, and worthless

Do you see this? My warpaint screams
I am not your victim
I am not your weak, disgusted little girl
I am a warrior

You can not have this
This body is mine
This body is strong
This body is me

And instead of fading
My warpaint seeps into my skin
Becoming what I am
A warrior, at war