Resilient

If there is any one thing you should know about me

it is that I am resilient.

I am the fairytale they won’t recite.

Little Red Riding Hood that could not be duped

by the Big Bad Wolf.

For they do not want to tell you the fairytales

of the dangerous women who won.

Instead, they’ll tell you the stories of the good girls…

heads bowed, eyes wide, and mouths shut.

You see, I am a descendant of all the wild women and their stories

that came before me. The ones the men thought they had burned.

They should have checked the ashes…

for it only takes one wild ember to start a wildfire.

And I guess they have always been afraid of the wild ones.

Little Red Riding Hood who knew precisely what she was doing

when she looked a not-so-gifted bad wolf in the mouth

and invited the wild in.

For when a wild ember masters the skill

of burning down entire forests without harming a single soul,

the Big Bad Wolf is revealed for who he genuinely is…

a coward of a man who killed the wild women he could not tame.

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And if there is only one thing you should know about me

it is that I am resilient.

I have never been one to back down from a challenge.

And I refuse to teach my nieces to wear shame like a second skin

or apologize for taking up space. for having both brains and beauty.

for being a woman.

So I will recite my fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood

who never backed down from the Big Bad Wolf.

And every antagonist who made the mistake

of throwing me in the wolves den will tell you the tales

of the scars that line my fair-skinned complexion,

proof that I did not win every fight.

But the story they won’t want to tell you

is how I walked out of the den. leading the pack. every time.

So, if you think you can stop me from reciting fairytales

of the dangerous women who won,

you can certainly try. In fact, I hope you do…

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But if there’s any one thing you should know about me

it is that I am resilient.