She said she didn’t need me,

so I taught my heart to stand on its own,

not out of spite,

but to protect the soft place in me,

that once called her home.

She asked if anything in the house was mine.

Nothing was.

So I walked out,

and built a life where even the smallest things,

belonged to me.

And with them came peace,

and a quiet sense of belonging

no one could take again.

She said she didn’t care how I lived

or where I died.

So I learnt to love myself,

to mother myself,

to fill the gap she walked in and out.

Like a doorway.

She told me to forget her as my mother

so I did.

Now she is just a familiar face

I once knew,

a place I no longer return to.

She cursed me,

so I blessed myself.

She left me,

so I gathered myself.

She disowned me,

so I claimed myself.

She broke me,

so I built myself.

She covered me in shame,

so I wrapped myself in dignity.

Everything part she stripped away

became fertile land for growth.

And in losing her,

I finally found.

ME.