Princess Cut

treasure hunting for yeses in our noes

they push, pull, tug and shove

at us like puppeteers

always​ expecting us to be smaller, tinier, out of focus

looking pretty in backgrounds

and on bedframes

with only our lips meant to pucker

we are carved into princess cuts

taught to sit, stand, walk, talk, be a certain way

but we are granite that refuses to bend to the will

of a gentry that shovells

we are torchbearers on the darkest night of this earth

and we will not be stopped from stepping out late into this night

by those who do not see

how we dazzle

not like diamonds,

but like weapons forged from iron