"WITHOUT APOLOGY"

My Emancipation Proclomation

free me from identities past,
identities shed

free me from previous capacities
in which i used to operate

free me from definitions that
caged and held hostage

because i'm not the girl

you think i am

i'm not the girl

i have been

because i'm not always

gonna be the girl you see today

No longer the little girl

who needs to ask

permission to

have my own opinions,

to have my own say,

i'm not the little girl

who needs to raise my hand

each time I

change my mind or fall in love,

i'm not the little girl

who needs to walk on eggshells
around you, afraid to step on your
 toes of disapproval,
nodding and "yes-ing" you away

Can't continue being afraid of
making mistakes, can't always be afraid
of spilling milk

i'm a rubberband

always expanding my limits

i'm a cocoon

meant to be destroyed so what's

inside can be freed

so this is me

without apologies

i'm still growing

still ever meta-morphising

so let me be-

free me

from this mental slavery

i gotta live with no apologies

so don't arrest me with your
interrogations

don't grind my wings to powder

don't shackle me to your preconceived
notions of what you've always thought
me to be

because what you've thought i am

is just an empty shell

no longer inhabited

you won't find me there-

 the only thing you'll find there
is your brittle fear

don't fear what i might become

don't fear what you don't recognize

don't fear what doesn't reflect you

fear what i might never become

if i endure any longer

the mental slavery

so tonight

without apology

i'm free-ing me