***

I am better off when I think better of
myself.
I used to shape my existence into the mold you gifted,
to speak the words that would fall into the right spaces
in the tetris of your mind,
your imagination,
your expectations.
I’m done.
Silence is not my style.
So I’ll paint days with strokes of laughter and drips of tears
even if they smudge and soak and ruin
the innocence of a blank page, of a clear sky moments before dawn.

All to know better, to think better of
who I am.