words to live by.

18

don't apologise

When I was six,

They told me not to let you

Touch me where my

Bathing suit covered.

I wondered what else I was supposed to do besides

Say "stop". I wondered how

Much trouble I would be in

When they found out the

Games Daddy liked to play.

When I was eight,

I was taught to hold my key between my fingers

And glare.

I always wondered why

My best friend John

Didn't have to.

I always wondered what I

Could do with some blunt metal

And fear coursing down through

My fingertips.

And when I was twelve,

I was asked to pull

My shirt up.

My body was a burden and

I was an object that need to

Be covered up.

I didn't mean to turn into

A women - I covered my flesh with

Apologies and tried to

Reverse time.

So when I was fourteen

And taken down by the river-

When there were seven of them and

"stop" still held no meaning -

When my key was useless against the

Tangle of hands and flesh and

Sweat pressing against my

Body (my burden), it was

Hard to believe I hadn't

"asked for it".

With pain ripping through my body

All I could think was

"I shouldn't have worn a skirt

Today"

Boys will be boys,

But women must be

Warriors; princesses.

We must be fierce but

Fragile. We must be broken

But unbreakable. We must

Be everything and nothing all

At once and learn to take

The blame.

I will no longer take the blame.

My body is not a war I should be make

To fight.

My existence is more than how to

Survive.

Boys will be boys and

When they are I will show them just

What a women is.

And I will not apologise.

ride by twenty one pilots.