Now Awake

They never saw the storm inside her, only the smile she wore like armor. She gave love when it wasn’t earned, trusted hands that later turned into knives behind her back. A girl who once dreamed soft things - love, peace, something steady. But life didn’t offer steady, it gave denials, trials, and betrayals, and children to protect through it all. Nude truths stolen and used like weapons. But they forgot - She’s more than skin, more than the shame they tried to paint her with. She is breath, after drowning. She is the page that burns and rewrites itself. She walks with wounds unbandaged, - but her spine stays straight. They tried to break her, but all they did was... Wake her.