Your heart still beats
the same blood as it did
before you were told to pour her out
in the name of honesty
to people you knew could not
handle the depth of her.

They instructed you to
take up the sword of truth
to carve away what
makes you who you are,
even though you knew that was not
what truth was made for and
all they wanted was conformity.

They tried to teach you to fear
the parts of you that were woven
into your soul by the stars
before you were born,
so you learned to suppress
what you knew in your gut you
could not, would not,
relinquish.

You learned to present tamed-down versions
that kept the damage from cutting too deep.

They thought they could keep you
trapped within walls they made you
build around yourself,
but they didn’t realize you would
look up to the stars,
hear them singing your soul-song back to you,
and feel yourself remembered.

They didn’t realize you knew
the truths you learned to hide from them are wings
and now you know there is no roof
and you can fly.