Tiger in Her Den

I look in the mirror and a monster looks back at me

She grins, running her thick tongue over her sharpened teeth

Sharpened specially for them

The others

Outside of the mirror

Sharpened for herself

Make the scars clearer

Always different, never afraid to bite

Who would she be, if she couldn't fight?

The monster knows what she is

A vessel of anger

An embodiment of abuse

Nothing but a sleeping dragon

Fueled by fire, fueled by liars

Nothing but the fragments glued together

Using blood from other people’s teeth

Veins spilling, she'll give love a pass

She grows her wings, tilts her horns, scrapes her nails against the cracking glass

That is what I see

I’ve created so many monsters at the age of twenty

I look in the mirror and a little yellow-haired girl looks back at me

She smiles, showing her crooked baby teeth

She won’t pull on the loose one

She doesn’t like to see blood

The little girl knows herself well enough

The boyish clothes would never change

She could run, she could chase

Her favourite place to play, the dying apple tree

Her favourite place to hide, the den where she was stung by a bee

Her favourite colour, the red of her bedroom wall

Her favourite story, skeleton detectives standing tall

Always different, never afraid to fall

She is a rockstar

An adventurer

A writer

A tiger

A fighter

A racer

A dragon-slayer

Nothing but the fragments of words picked up by her favourite books

Is this what she will be when she grows up?

Nothing but a person built from the tiger cub

When her teeth aren’t crooked

When her teeth are fully grown

That is what I used to see

Worlds filled with possibilities

Eyes in the mirror creating them vividly

My horns and wings shrink in

The darkness begins to dwindle

She climbs her way to the front

Knowing this is who she truly is

That is what I see

A heart bursting with stories, love and light

Her laugh, a sun shining bright

Why hide her away?

The girl who stands in my memory

Waiting to tell you about her dreams

Who she'd like to be (it can be anything, truly)

The tiger in her den

I’ve created so many places at the age of ten

The monster would give anything to be there again.

That is what she is

Created by her own pen