By: Linda M Crate

“grow up”
they told me
rejecting my reality
trying to get me to
embrace their own,
but i would never
take their hand
no matter how much they
begged or pleaded or
demanded;
i’ve always had a mind of
my own
stubbornly digging my heels
into the dirt
i grew
like roots
deep into the earth
collapsing inward upon myself
in the most beautiful
petals—
“grow up”
they’d shriek,
but they didn’t realize in growing
upward i simultaneously
had to dig deeper
discover my truths so i could move
forward with my life;
they only wanted
me to conform—
but i knew
i was meant to do more than their
highest expectations.