Rose

A rose by any other name
Would smell as sweet
Though glittered perfection
  Distracts the senses.
Check yes or no
  For originality or conformity.
A neon pink check screams yes for one.
Mom bears through it,
    Hating what I have become
Never
The poster child
    For Christianity or perfection
Dad can only agree with her.
Lost
    In a world of fantasy
Of dreaming
Of loving
The black-lit neon in the drab
    I color myself in.
Knowing the gods of my religion smile over me
  Even if
I am not the Barbie doll the world expects me to be.
    I smile.
  Knowing.
That my dream is true
Living as myself and no one else
Dropping those carefully constructed walls
    I once held up,
Keeping out the monsters,
    Baring my own fangs against them.
I am me!
I am me!
The obnoxiously pink rose amongst the violets,
    Shunned,
Long ago,
I now rise—
A witch,
A friend,
A sister,
A daughter,
A lover, artist, girl, woman, raver, freak—
A phoenix from the ashes
Wearing a Cheshire grin.