life is not intended to be free
it is a weight pressed into the skull
an iron in the blood
a currency paid in heartbeats
for the bridges we cross
and the flames we leave behind
the ash stains our fingers
and still we hold them up to the light
hoping for forgiveness

but today i will not pay
i will not trade myself for their promises
this is not their story to write
it is mine
i will not bow to their clocks
or kneel at the altar of their demands

i am not really here
i am up there
floating like smoke through their hands
like ants dragging their dead across sand
their hands reach for me
but i am gone

i am not stone
i am water
bending but never breaking
a reed that hums in the wind

and here in this moment
i am not small i am not waiting
i am boundless i am lithe
this is the choice i made

Lucija Lotus Mlinarič