I awake and think about
Commitment today
Think about discipline
Doing the work
Showing up
Those two words
That simple phrase
That became a weapon
Used against me
And so many others
A manipulation to force
An exchange
Of vulnerability
To an unsafe audience
A phrase that means
Everything to an artist
But can so easily be twisted
To harm the artist
Today I show up for myself
Long past the need
To placate another
Long past the need
For ephemeral reassurance
So that as I look inward
Instead of outward
I find, beneath the desolate dust
The gift I had long slandered
The gift of myself
I find my face again
In the mirror
Its worn edges
Its cracked smile
Its mixed eyes
There, there I am again
My truth
My self
My gift to the world