People kept telling her:
"you can't be this, you can't be that"
the girl pretended to listen, their words a blur
she sat there unnoticed, her face flat.

She went to school
receiving an education
she let her parents rule
keeping silent, hiding her creation.

When the nights closed in
and her parents went to sleep
she took out a notebook with a grin;
after all it wasn't theirs to keep.

She bled out words
that had stuck on her skin
outside chirped nice birds
unlike the crows she hid within.

Soon her graduation came
as she held her diploma in hand
she heard her own name
with it came the feared demand.

"You'll become a lawyer like us, right?"
the girl whirled around to see
her mum and dad standing up to their full height
she bit her lip, only wanting to be free.

"No," she told them, "I will not!"
she looked her parents straight in the eye
looking like they'd both been shot
but the girl didn't want to lie.

"I'll become a writer,"
she told them, with a light smile
her parents did not turn brighter
but that hadn't ever been their style.