I WILL NOT STAY DOWN

The ground remembers every tear I’ve fed it Mud in my lungs yeah, it wants me quiet Roots in my ribs pulling me downward Every breath feels borrowed every thought feels heavier Silence crawls inside my chest like winter Heartbeat dull like it’s tired of trying I don’t scream anymore I sink instead Watching the sky disappear inch by inch Dirt in my mouth , but I still whisper Not today I’ve got one arm out of the grave Fingers clawing through the pain You can bury me in sorrow But I will not stay I am bruised I am bleeding But I refuse to fade With one arm raised to the sky I am still alive My mask slipped off cracked in the dirt Purple eyes staring back at nothing The woman they feared is face down in soil But I’m still breathing don’t mistake that Every promise I made to survive Feels heavier than the stones on my spine They say let go let the dark have you But the dark doesn’t get to choose I taste iron , I taste truth I didn’t come this far to lose I’ve got one arm out of the grave Knuckles split bones shaking Every inch I pull is war And I was born for this Let the dirt hear my name Let the night watch me live I don’t need saving I am not done yet Days melt together underground No sunrise no sense of sound Thoughts echo like distant drums As the earth keeps saying “you’re done” They think silence means surrender They think stillness means I’m gone But I’m coiling like a serpent Saving strength for one last push Say it with me, dirt and bone I am not yours I’ve got one arm out of the grave And it’s stronger than your chains I don’t break I don’t bow I don’t disappear You can press the weight of the world on me Still I rise still I stay I am the curse that won’t go quiet I will never quit I remember who I was before the fall Before the numbness before the crawl She wore a mask but she was real And gods she knew how to feel Even stripped down to bare skin and breath Even buried halfway into death If one arm can still reach sky Then hope is not a lie This isn’t hope This is will I’ve got one arm out of the grave And that’s all I’ll ever need I’ve bled truth into the soil Now the soil remembers me Mask on the ground crown in my chest I survived what tried to end I am still here I will never give in