conflict//resolute
I have never been
That is –
I have always been
A woman
Dressed in girly clothes
Short hair
Flowers on every dress
Knees scraped
And I am aware
A girl
I more than she
Seemingly appears
I am aware that
A girl
Can have dresses and
Scabby knees
But, when I was
Young, impossible,
Fearlessly playing with boys
I felt
I wasn’t just girl
Just girl
Is title bestowed on
the pretty
I could never be
Pretty, sweet
Princess of the story
Happily trapped
When I was young
And boy
Dared call me princess
I raged
He would rescue me
From my
Tower guarded by dragon
I roared
I didn’t need boy
Or man
Or anything else to
Rescue me
When I got older
Childhood ended
With a river of
Bloody cries
It heralded the end
I thought
That’s it, woman is
the end
The end of fun
Because they
Gagged at stains I
Couldn’t control
But I was wrong,
Just because
I grew up quicker
Than them
Does not make me
Any less
Able to be young
Like them
Running unashamedly free I
Let them
See me for what
I am
I know now that
I am
Fiercer than the wild
When taunted
I am mightier than
God himself
When faced with their
Hateful words
I am wiser than
Wise men
Who claimed me dirty
And cursed
I have never been
That is –
I have always been
A woman
Because to me a
Woman is
Anything I make it
To be
Verity Campbell
YELLOW 