Her

I will not beg for someone’s attention

Will not sit by my phone waiting

While someone stares at theirs ignoring my existence

like I am a pawn in their game

a blind mouse in their thesis project

I will not give more of myself

than is deserved than is earned

much like respect I require effort

I am not a consolation prize nor a blue ribbon

I am so much more than anything that can be won

I will not lay at anyone’s feet begging for table scraps

like the stray brought in by the heroic master

I cut the strings you used to puppeteer me and now I am free

Like the wind in spring

Or during a hurricane

You cannot bottle me up

I am not something anyone can claim

I will never be the person I was before I met you

Nor the person I was with you

My edges have become sharp

like the knife you left in my spine

like the pieces of my heart that lay shattered

in the floorboard of my car

on the ground of your parking lot

My stitched up mouth has forgotten to speak

I've misplaced sunshine, caught now in the shade

The bright blue of hope fades, I'm growing weak

Time to admit what's in front of my eyes

There is so little of me that remains

Survey the damage with my keening cries

See how the aching swells and then wanes

This radio station lost in the hills

The static of silence enfolding me

& there are those dreams that time only kills

Sharp edges of truth I don't want to see

I've felt the punch & slap of disdain

In Russia, artist Sasha Skochilenko was found guilty Thursday of spreading “false information” about the Russian military and sentenced to seven years in prison for replacing supermarket price tags with antiwar messages. The labels featured messages like “The Russian army bombed an art school in Mariupol. Around 400 people were hiding inside.” Skochilenko was convicted under new wartime legislation that criminalizes any antiwar messaging or activism. In her closing statement after her year-and-a-half trial, Skochilenko said, “How little faith does our prosecutor have in our state and society if he thinks that our statehood and public security can be ruined by five small pieces of paper?”