I cannot sleep for saddness

nor for ill thoughts

I cannot sleep for grief in my heart and pain in my mind

There is a sickness in my drumming on my skull

NO NO NO

played over again

a constant and nagging rewind

of something I can't seem to forget

 

Protection is a funny thing

it is earbuds

to suffocate the sounds of men

when you see the man sitting next to her

has a sickness in him that can't be cured

 

I see this

when everyone else looks down

preoccupied pissy pricks

pushing punching past

 

I see her escape the corner he enclosed her in

he is a portly toad

to call him human is wrong because he is no better

than the earthworms that will feast on his rotting toad flesh

 

If you ask me where his justice is 

I will ask you

"Where is her justice?"

there is no grace or savior in this world for toads

there is no rest in this world for the wicked

esspecially wicked toads who prey on luminous butterflies

 

There is no justice for the butterflies because we are not worth it

So we dull our wings and they kill our spirits

We are born worthless as you toads of the world never 

fail to remind us

But

That doesn't stop us from flying away

we may be delicate with our wings

and fragile to the world

and unlike toads

we are not chained to the ground

 

Our maker has given us the power to reclaim ourselves

and find worth in our flight

fight and flight

both it seems

are necessary to survive 

 

I watched the toad corner the butterfly

She squirmed

and struggled

Turned her face away from his nasty tongue 

reaching out to her 

once, twice and thrice

 

Then the clouds split and she soared away

and the toad sat

stared

stared

Dumbfounded to be left lost

with no prey to devour

A lost cause

A victory

 

Then

It heard me screaming

shaking on the inside

and picked its disgusting way over to me

and started again

its tongue I heard

its tongue I saw

I screamed, once, twice

Fingered the poison pepper in my hands

And it roared with laughter at my screams

My terrifying earth-shattering butterfly screams

And then it was gone

 

I am a butterfly     Hear me roar

I am a woman       Hear my voice

I am a girl             Hear my words

I am speaking to you

 

                   Hear my No