Stubborn
You’ve joy in limiting my taste, preferring to keep my tongue scarred-- thinking that it will keep me chaste, easy to punish and discard. I was the convenient blame and you thought I was yours to shame. Though of the fight I’ll never tire, I scorch with my infinite fire. My teeth bear down against your grit Is this the price I’ll have to pay? Impossible, I won’t do it. You need my words to be erased my pages are ripped, torn, and charred, pretending that my thoughts are waste when in fact you feel rightly marred. You tease esteem as if a game, use cruelty to make me tame. Subject me to a life so dire-- it’s silence you wish you’d inspire. Could I be released of my wit and limit what I mean to say? Impossible, I won’t do it. The sharpest truth you’re ever faced— my wicked piece, the cutting shard has come to light after you’ve chased; you sweat as you draw every card. We feel life’s pain the very same no matter how you try to frame. We’ll all be met by Heaven’s choir though you have named me as a liar. Offer my neck for you to slit and all my tired skin to flay? Impossible, I won’t do it. You tear me out to be displaced and say my fate is just ill-starred, but your lies can now be retraced. You’ll try to freeze your heart too hard. You see me as a blazing flame, refuse to see my heart’s pure aim. I’m pulled right through the deadly briar and threatened with the hottest pyre. Grind me down until I submit so that my colours turn to gray? Impossible, I won’t do it. I know that I am made of clay. Am I supposed to live this way? Burn myself to keep your house lit or abrade every edge to fray? Impossible, I won’t do it. bio: "Khadeja Ali is a poet and visual artist from Massachusetts who uses her art to explore themes of the heart and the mind. She has a degree in Art History as well as a Master's in Intercultural Relations--both of which inform her life experience and her art. Khadeja is a native of Mauritius with ancestry from Eastern Europe. You can find her on twitter as @khadejalidraw."
Fevers of the Mind 