Release me 

 

 You taught me how to turn ideas into sentences 

Showed me how to get a gold star from my teachers

Their “good job” made me giddy with confidence 

I craved approval 

Sacrificed my sanity for it 

With every word spoken your grip tightened 

Your presence reeked of dominance and hostility 

                  My creativity fled afraid to anger you 

You put borders on my imagination 

Like a bird I flew into that wall, breaking my bones one by one 

For nine years I followed you like a child chases a firefly in the night 

Mesmerized by the flickering of its lights 

Stumbling over rocks, branches ripping at smooth olive flesh 

The child unaware she had run too far from home

Too focused on the light to realize it had drained her of her passion

Release me 

Of my anger, my regrets, my doubts 

You vandalized my safe haven with your presence

Stripped it of its elegance, its beauty, its sloppy beginnings

You carved it to your choosing; a bloody carcass of broken dreams

Why did you say my poetry was not worthy?

My stories of men lurking in the shadows not alluring enough?

Fuck you 

Fuck your rules

You ripped me of my childhood, my affinity for writing

Release me 

I hate you, for now words have no meaning

As I write this I hold no true value in my work 

I feel it is all wrong and should be in perfect sentence structure

I have been corrupted, my mind tainted with the dullness of your influence

I am not poetic, my words are no Starry Night

 Perhaps I can reconnect with that child once again

Tell her what she yearns for can be no more  

Perhaps she can be reborn