You wouldn't have made it

Don’t you dare point your finger,
Don’t cast your shallow eyes on me.

You, cloaked in ignorance,

Wading in waters you’ve never dared to see.

You haven’t felt the weight of my nights,

The crushing silence that screams,

The jagged edges of broken dreams

That tore through my seams.

I write my life in blood and fire,

In scars too deep for you to know.

Each word, a battle, each breath, a war—

Fought in a world where nothing would grow.

You haven’t crawled where I have crawled,

Haven’t tasted dirt when the world let you fall.

My heart’s been dragged through the shattered glass,

And still, I rise, though my shadow’s vast.

What do you know of surviving the storm?

Of wearing a smile when your soul’s been torn?

Of holding the weight of a thousand cries,

While staring blankly into empty skies?

So judge me not, for you haven’t a clue

Of the flames I’ve walked, what I’ve had to do.

You wouldn’t have lasted, wouldn’t have stayed—

You’d have crumbled under what I’ve braved.

So take your judgment, take your lies,

Take your polished, hollow disguise.

You wouldn’t have made it,

Not one single day.

So don’t stand before me

And dare to say.