When Pink Fades to Magenta

When I was five, my blood ran pink;

Pink carpets in my room,

Pink walls and wallpaper, with prints of

Ballerina shoes.

My color was my signature,

My safety and my friend.

It's kept me 'me', even after

The shade started to bend.

By ten, in a new home,

Pink still lived on

New bedroom walls;

Stitched into all the clothing

In which I would dress my dolls.

My innocence was anchored,

Even through my pre-teen years.

I still wore pink, and got teased for

My "angel eyes and ears."

Fifteen years of life, I'd spent

Learning to love myself;

My soul stayed pink through high school,

Protecting my mental health.

I didn't hear the stirring storm

Out for my soul and blood;

War silently was coming,

But my color armored up.

At twenty years of age, I

Had disclosed so many lies.

I was haunted by deception

Every time I closed my eyes.

My life became a vacant place;

My soul became so dark.

Wounded by my own mother,

I almost fell apart.

I'm twenty five, I've been to hell,

But my soul stayed in tact.

When pink turned to magenta,

That's when I took my strength back.

You see, my life turned so dark,

Battle scars left on my skin,

And still my color never left my side,

Through thick and thin.

So pink may be a color

Recognized as weak to you,

But test it under fire-

Now it's ocean-deep maroon.

My color has matured with me,

Like reverse-aging ink.

Though my soul's now deep magenta,

My blood always will run pink.