A POEM:
The Villain I’ve Become
I am no longer the woman I was.
There is a new soul living beneath my skin.
Softer once, kinder once
Now even my silence feels dangerous.
I am a dog
A silent dog that does not bark but bites.
I no longer waste warnings on people
Who sharpened pain behind their smiles.
Friendship taught me betrayal wearing perfume.
Love taught me how quickly “forever” can rot.
I carried hearts like sacred glass
While others carried stones for my back.
They backbit me in rooms I once lit with laughter,
Turned my name into a wound in their mouths.
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And still they wonder
Why darkness now sits comfortably in my eyes.
I did not become a villain overnight.
Pain built this version of me carefully
Stitch by stitch, scar by scar,
Until my tenderness could no longer survive.
Now I walk through people differently.
No attachment. No trembling hope.
Just instincts sharpened by survival
And a heart learning not to bleed openly.
But even villains dream sometimes.
Mine strange
A world where loyalty is real,
Where love does not arrive carrying knives.
So if I seem cold now, understand this
Ice is what water becomes
After surviving unbearable winters.
And if my bite frightens them
They should remember
It was their cruelty
That taught my silence how to hunt.
Tirzah's ink 🖋️🖋️
