Survival

she is wise

and wary of flames

but still, she knows

she will survive the fire

life scorches sometimes.

she has been a phoenix before

and every time

she burns to ashes

she knows

exactly how to rise

again.

she carries

destruction grief

carved river deep in her bones

specializes in

wrecking ball

knows how to bring

the whole thing down

surveys the broken

claims it as wholeness

and names it all good

she knows well

the holy necessity

of beginning again.

she has gone mad

for beauty

found rapture in shadows

calls poetry her religion

she seduces uncertainty

like a dominatrix

bows to no god

names herself goddess

builds alters

to the divinity

of heat and sweat and sex

and claims righteous ownership of

the body she has been given.

she once held her truth

in bone marrow,

locked deep.

but she was always

prone to fracture

learned that words flowed best

at the broken spots

she wrote splinter point novellas

told shatter stories

knit words into worlds

and worlds into heat

and heat into breath

and breath into medicine

and she learned her voice

had the power to heal.

she lives transparent now

welcomes the feel

of air on bare skin

throws arms wide

holds out her heart

and says here

take this

all of it

she figured early

that far too much energy

is invested in veiling

truth

in hiding bodies

in cloaking love

she refuses

to cultivate shame

she saves her effort

for vital things.

she knows that

love is expensive

and always worth

the price

she knows home is not

where she lives

but something

inside held

and sometimes

only found by leaving

she knows that walls

are imaginary

and that open doors

are everywhere

and that eventually

we will all

make our way

back to the sea

back to the crashing waves

back to salt water truth

she does not believe in one day

no happily ever after

or black and white

hard truths

her forever is now

she finds her rapture in the fullness

of this moment

humanity is her only dogma

kindness her communion

and church a mountain top

in the center of the desert

while the city pulses below

she speaks amen

in every holy fragment of existence.

she always knew she’d have daughters

knew she would mother them well.

she teaches them the value of their

outside voice

their no voice

their yes voice

their my entire being is a templevoice

she teaches them that their spirit

is truth

and their truth

is strength

and their strength

is vulnerability

and their vulnerability is a gift.

she knows too many girls

are broken before they

become

she has done battle in the name of rebirth

carries her scars with fierce grace

she finds beauty in the breakdown

and wholeness in the shatter

strength in the fault lines

and goodness in everything.

she is not afraid to name her gifts

knows the magic in her words

knows the spiral in her hips

she has a vital spark

at the center of her longing

she has secrets behind her eyes

and will share them

with anyone

who asks

but she only wants those

who commit

to asking.

she knows that compromise

is for vocations

and that spirit

is non-negotiable

she accepts no labels or limits

build her a box

and she will dismantle it carefully

use the pieces

to create a stage

and sing her own wild song

knows there is a power

in the melody we carry in our

bones.

She knows the lotus blooms

in mud

she knows the phoenix

goes down in flames

she knows the rapture of lust

and the escape of captivity

she knows the center of the paradox

is where the truth is found.

she is full of sky

full of starshine

full of goddess flame

bleeds words

speaks truth

welcomes it all

howls at the moon

she is a girl on fire

she is stoking the flames

she is lighting the world

she burning to ashes

And always she is rising

And rising

And rising again

She‘s a SURVIVOR!!!

-DAVE LINUS JNR