BONES DON'T LIE

BONES DON’T LIE

A Pathway Worker’s Song

Intro

Yesterday I wrote something that came from a deep place, a place shaped by the world I grew up in, and the world I chose instead. This piece is about extremism, autonomy, migration, ancestry, and the human road. It’s about refusing to go backward, even when the culture around us tries to drag us there. The photos included are the quiet moments that inspired it, pauses, breaths, shifts.

BONES DON’T LIE

We Are Not Going Back — A Pathway Worker's Song

This is my song:

 I was born in a world where men thought they owned the sky,

where women’s bodies were ballots

and skin was a border line.

But biology never lied to me.

Migration never lied to me.

The bones of our ancestors never carried a flag.

Race was a story someone invented to divide what was already one.

 A myth carved by frightened men who mistook their shadows for kingdoms.

 I’m a worker of pathways.

 I walk the human road.

 I don’t bow to the snarls of extremists

or the thunder of insecure gods.

 My brother chose that world.

 I didn’t.

He built walls.

 I built a life.

 Women’s bodies are not political.

Our skin is not a battlefield.

Our existence is not a debate.

 We are not going back.

Let the extremists fade back into the wallpaper

Where fear belongs.

Reflection

Extremist patriarchal ideology blends into our culture in ways that are impossible to ignore. It teaches hierarchy, obedience, and fear.

 It harms women, people of color, and anyone who doesn’t fit its narrow worldview.

I’ve seen it up close.

My brother chose that world.

I didn’t.

I chose humanity.

I chose pathways.

 I chose freedom.

This piece isn’t about hating anyone it’s about naming the harm that comes from systems built on domination and insecurity.

It’s about refusing to return to a world where women’s autonomy is debated like legislation. It’s about remembering that we are all human, all connected, all walking forward.

We are not going back. Not out of anger, but out of evolution.

Author Note

This is the written form the pathway worker’s song. A piece about ancestry, autonomy, and choosing humanity over extremism.

Vicki Lawana Trusselli