Rise

Looking back, there is only devastation to be seen.

Whether self-inflicted, juxtaposed, or real remains to be decided.

Nevertheless, it is still there.

As the fires burn, I know that it is up to me to move on, break through the bonds lain upon me, and rise.

Oppressed by the weight of your expectations, I feel myself slipping into infinity

Unable to catch the thin and quickly fraying lifeline.

Downtrodden under the weight of your dreams

I am stifled and left gasping for air, stuck in this thinly veiled autocracy with no say in my future, because

"I'm too young to know what I want".

Oppressed by the weight of your delusions, I am forced bend to your relentless will

Hoping, praying that one day I'll rise above those clouds, and forge my own destiny

A road maybe not lined with gold or silver, but lined instead with whatever I want it to be. That will be enough to suffice.

I've realised that you've eaten into my soul, attempted to sabotage my dreams, and leave me with no recourse but to follow yours.

The lies you've pumped me with will be slowly extricated, and I'll rise anew, and taste the freedom I long for.

Yet, crushed under the weight of your tainted desires

I see myself, faltering, squeezed of the dignity that I deserve.

These goals are not mine, and yet I must embrace them like they are.

How painful it is, you don't realise. It feels like a barbed straightjacket

But through it all, there is still that hope, the opportunity to rise above the darkness and into the great unknown.

These perpetual clouds of yours cast their dark pallor upon my virgin dreams

Overshadow them, and render them useless and broken like the many before them.

But I think I realised a long time ago that it doesn't really matter to you if I succeed at your wishes.

But only if I fail, when there will be your consternation to bear. .

I won't let myself care if, and when, I defy you and rise.

For I am too limitless to be tied down by so few petty rules.

You push me down, and I know that like a diamond I will rise again.

Refined and beautiful, if not scarred and broken.

Lies, false promises, and the countless dreams you've destroyed. I'll remember them and rise above them.

I'll rise.

a/n: not my normal style, but hey… they say change is good…