empathy

A Poem About Why You Should Never Feel Sorry For Being True To Yourself

Photography by Kersti K

Dear men who try to change me
I will not
Quit smoking
I will not
Eat less
Wear heels more often
Or cut my hair
I will not take drugs
With you
And have unprotected sex
Because my body
Is the only monument
I have left.
Dear father
I will not
Stop wearing second hand dresses
To interviews
And life changing job meetings
I will not
Stop putting black lipstick on
Or cut my nails
I will not
Let you shame me
Because my heart is brittle with
Remorse
From the years you lived next to me
In absence.
Dear mother
I will not clean my room more often
I will not wear pijamas to bed
I will not change my friends
Stop making tattoos on my skin
Or come back home
I will not let you take me down
In anger
Because I was born a different person than you
And you taught me to confuse
Aggression for affection
To seek the impossible love
In men
And chase dust and abandon.
Dear lovers
I will not
Write poems about you
When you ask me to pour my soul
Automatically
To please your ego
Because I will not change
Who I am
For anybody else
Than me.

—

Ioana Cristina Casapu is the Managing Director of Art Parasites Magazine. She likes Brian Eno, airports and never says no to a good old Gin&Tonic. 

Read all her stories and poetry here.

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