Unapologetic

I wore my butterfly Sunday dress, All lace and sky-blue seams; I thought it meant I’m harmless, He thought it birthed his dreams. Uncle said my smile was sin, That wings invite the night; He locked the door and leaned right in— “Keep quiet and don’t fight” He snarled that no one’d trust my cries, And that I “led him on” that day; “You begged with flutter-patterned thighs— Now hush and look away.” I scrubbed his breath out of my skin, The sink ran rust-red streams; First blood came far too soon within, And shattered my childhood dreams. My best mate waved; I dodged his touch, No hand could feel quite safe; If he could twist a dress so much, Then any smile was chafe. At night I hugged the ceiling’s dark, And prayed the dawn would stall; Silence gnawed a growing mark No one to hear at all. When weight of secrets bent my spine And sleep refused to stay, I wrote: “The blame was never mine— I’m giving guilt away.” “I’m sorry wings were on my hem, I’...

I pressed the button years ago, It flickered once, then sank below. The doors stayed shut, the light went red, A metaphor, they might have said. Each day I wait in silent halls, Between the cracks of crumbling walls. While others ride from floor to floor, I pace the dust, I watch the door. I dress in hope, I stand up straight, Pretending patience alters fate. But time just smirks with every tick, A cruel, relentless metronome click. I see reflections, faint and warped, Of dreams I built, then life extorted. They fade like steam on window panes. My whispered prayers, my phantom pains. Some say, “Just take the stairs instead,” But mine are missing, cracked, or dead. A spiral down, a lurching bend, Each step I climb just loops again. I’ve shouted, screamed, and banged the steel, Tried trading wounds for something real. But silence echoes back my name, A ghostly curse, a hollow claim. Still here I stand, a soul confined, Trapped on the floor the wo...