By: Linda M Crate

i’m no longer your porcelain princess
won’t break since you dropped me
because i’ve found beauty
in the peaces of my soul
you never truly saw me as my beautiful reality
only for the depth of my scars
which hold beauty if you look past the ugliness
of the marred skin;
but i wouldn’t expect a superficial heart to know
how to look beyond the gloaming,
and so i became the hero that i needed
saving my own heart among the thorns and thistles
of the trees;
saving my own soul from the monsters of the world
which usually guised themselves as men and
women—
the creatures with the fangs and the claws
are truly less terrifying than the daggers and swords of
a human tongue cutting with salt into the hearts
of all those too wounded to walk
without limp,
and so i release my rage and my fury and i give you forgiveness
because i deserve peace and i don’t need to think of
you or your folly anymore.