I deserve better
I know
How I journeyed
*
I deserve better
Than those self beliefs
You boxed me in
*
I deserve better
Than performative pebbles
*
I deserve better
Your disrespectful looks
Remarks
Didn’t make you look better
In the mirror
You’re still out of shape
No matter what else you hold
Who do you think you are?
I’m talking to you – plural
*
I deserve better
Inherently
Innately
*
I deserve better
Than drama
That smells
*
I deserve better
I know you lied
Some of you lied
Was I always honest?
No
I did things behind closed doors
But I didn’t pretend
To be an angel
*
I deserve better
Than a stench
Of nothing
*
I deserve better
Even if I seem
Accommodating to you
*
I deserve better
Than smiling
Only to accommodate you
*
I deserve better
Get this through
Your crystal fake skulls
*
I deserve better
I knew this when someone told me
That an editor was being rude
Yet it didn’t sink in
Until later
*
I deserve better
Someone I admired told me
I was an ambassador for poetry
I felt the warmth of those words
Yet I couldn’t absorb
And that’s not my fault
I know I deserve better
And have to make changes in my life
*
I deserve better
I only wore a certain mask
To make you feel better
To make you feel like
I couldn’t see right through you
*
I deserve better
At the core – and you know this
*
I deserve better
Even if you all don’t want me to know this
I deserve better
I’m not a saint
But I deserve better
