✨ The Glitter Bow

There comes a moment — quiet, not dramatic
where a woman doesn’t snap.
She simply remembers.

She remembers the child who thought kindness could fix anything.
She remembers the woman who learned it could be her undoing.
She remembers that the ones she trusted to love her
were the same ones laughing at her pain.

She remembers how easily she forgave —
even when they were never sorry.

She remembers all the times she kept the peace
while the only thing breaking was herself.

And word by word,
memory by memory,
she begins to unfold.

She remembers that truth isn’t loud
it ends the noise.

So she wraps up the past in a rhinestone-studded folder that says:

“Here’s every time I made myself small so you could feel big.
You can return them, along with my time and energy.
And don’t forget your complimentary go-fuck-yourself bow on the way out.”

I haven’t just been quiet.
I’ve been archiving
storing every slight, every injustice,
every WTF-did-I-just-live-through moment.

Like a walking vault of unspoken truth
wrapped in good manners.

Let’s be really clear:
I didn’t survive all of this to be polite.
I didn’t carry receipts just to file them in silence.
And I sure as hell didn’t walk through fire just to whisper.

The Glitter Bow?
That’s just the beginning.

Christina Swearingen

Art & Words © Christina Swearingen | That’s What She Said Series
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