Purdah

I am not a tootsie roll
wrapped up to keep off lint and dirt.
I am a human being.
I have personhood and dreams
ambitions, likes, desires,
yearnings and creative fires…

I have a life to live
that is my own.

I have just angers,

I have boundaries,
mine,
not yours.

How ignorant
how arrogant
how mean of you
to think me nothing
but your lollipop.

_{CL Redding 2014}