From Stone

“Are you jealous of me?” Medusa hisses.

Her friends slither, and smile. “Another statue,” they laugh.

“Pretty, cold, porcelain; meant for a shelf,” they mock.

I’m cement decoration,

My sedimentary walls

are

crumbling

       crumbling

crumbling.

When it’s time to play Simon Say’s I’m never Simon.

You don’t need to be special to get me too follow just

Praise me

Like me

    Love me

                I beg.

Life is a game of Tag, and I’m always IT.

I’m Marco pleading for my Polo.

I’m the Goose chasing the Ducks.

I’ll Seek and never Hide as long as I’m not alone.

 

Medusa told me “We’re real. We’re solid.”

“A bond like ours is forged from fire and iron.”

“If friendship was a weapon, Alexander the Great would carry ours into battle.”

If I could shoot love into my veins, I’d be a First-Class junkie.

I’d have more needles in my backpack than pens.

“Friends don’t doubt each other. They only trust.”

Trust me, all I’ve done is let you drag me down stairwells blindfolded.

I can’t believe you let me stumble.

 

I followed the leader when she took off her clothes

Simon said “strip,” and so I did.

I played along when the guys wanted two desperate girls instead of one.

Sharing a mind is exhausting,

God, I wish I had my own.

 

But now I’ve carved a heart of stone and forged a mind of steel.

 

With a heavy hammer I chiseled my soul

Until chunks of Insecurities piled around my feet.

I stepped over

Praise me

   Like me

Love me

Because I no longer beg.

Engraved in my chest is Plath, Angelou, and Bronte.

Etched in my heart is the smiles of my professors,

My hands don’t shake and plead they create and lead.

Michelangelo's David is rubble next to the masterpiece I have become.  

 

I think my thoughts.

I speak my mind.

Everything I am belongs to me.

I walk in rooms, and the walls fall down.

I’m my own box of chaos and hope,

an effervescent storm that destroys and creates.

I am not a feast to be shared.

 

Medusa’s head rolls when it strikes the ground.

 

With a bloody trail following behind me,

I emerge from the cave,

Victorious and alone.