Storybook Tale

I had never lead a good life Grief and despair always followed me and eloped me in its tightening embrace Surrounded in a storybook world, i was bound for the optimal role The role to which my mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother and all the greats after her endured I was bound for the worst role of them all: the villain Growing up, I followed all the rules I was given And carried them on my shoulders like burdens Heavy burdens Heavy burdens that kept me tied and shackled and staring in the only reality I would ever know When men saw me, they didn’t see degrees and hard work and value They saw cheap meat dangling on a stick for them to devour In high school, my smarts never mattered over the amount of cleavage I could show for an A + In college, attending parties was just as dangerous as walking to class because the next misstep could result you drugged, injured, even dead I have no crime rather than trying to live as a women in this world With grace and integrity I have pushed past everything ainst and they still find ways to hold me back To them I am defenseless, worthless, vulnerable I have no crime but the jury still finds me guilty and I am a prisoner of my cruel horrible fate And as I look in the book of the living I have found all those women who have received condemnation Cyntoia Brown, Sara Kruzan, Chrystal Kizer, Pieper Lewis, and my mother, and her mother, and all the women who came before them But im tired for paying for the broken dishes of those who suffer from hero complex They could only see how much sex I was good enough for or how tight my skirt could be I am tired of living like a humanless villain as they take away my freedom I am reclaiming back my freedom and rewritiing this story Im taking the pen in my hand and erasing this narrative and write the words of strength and determination of who I am Of who we are And we are not backing down You will hear us chanting on the streets and filling every room Until you hear us Because we were never villains of this tale But if you so desperately want us too Then beware because we will wreck your world until we fit in it And create out storybook ending