When They Ask Why I Didn’t Just Leave

I don’t know how to write you a monster 

but I do know how to write me a human

The kind with soft insides

and a body like water

learning to drown out the voices 

asking me why I didn’t fight back harder

not knowing that I do

every day

when I say my name and find myself at the end of it. 

Healing from Unbearable acts that Maimed but did not Annihilate a Nigga

determined to outlive death. 

Human.