You are breathing fire,
a phoenix risen from the embers
reborn and yet the same as always;
strong and dark and clever and
good.
You are breathing fire
because it has been spreading in your lungs
a small spark planted there when you were born,
feeding on all the small and big injustices that you’ve endured
and picking up white hot rage over the years.
Now, at 31, you are a dragoness,
no longer afraid to take up the space you deserve
and making yourself known to anyone who has ears to hear you
breathing fire and
talking soot,
roaring sparks and
spewing heat.