Like a Firebird, I Rise From the Ashes

Prose Poetry

Photo by Victor Rodvang on Unsplash

You thought you could hold me down or kick me to the curb and watch me wilt under your power.

You thought it was so easy, so simple, breaking someone like me.

Your words told a story even if no one around us was listening. I heard the warning loud and clear, but everyone else turned their heads away and ignored the truth right in front of them.

I’m here to tell you that you lost.

I’m here to tell you that I survived.

I’m here to tell you that I rose from the ashes like a firebird — and I’m not going away.

I’m not the scared little girl you looped around your finger till there was no room to breathe.

You tried to suck the life out of me, but I had one last breath still held tight in my lungs.

Things will be different; I’ll make them so with my own two hands.

Watch me as I go from smoldering in the ashes to rising up and facing you again.

You thought you’d burn me till there was nothing left.

You thought I was such an easy target with no hope for consequences.

But here I am, here I stand, here I am staring straight at you.