I didn’t fit
I know that now
inside your wire cage
your wooden box
a whitewashed tomb
a grave of early death
too strong
too fierce
too naked
too tender
too bold
too fiery
too woman
too soft
too
too
too
full of
smoke
and
flames
and
water
and
wind
but you can’t cage a Girl
who has freedom in Her soul and
fire burning up Her veins
and wild things are only
broken
never tamed
so go ahead
scrape Me out of your safe little world
keep it pretty and clean
for I am free now to rise
like a raven in the night
touching the clouds and the
hand of god
upon whose
winds I take wing
and your cage and your tomb
lay mangled and
empty
evermore
evermore
evermore
©stephanie pepper, 2020
evermore
Published
stephanie pepper 
So happy you posted 🖤🖤🖤
Sent from my iPhone
>
Thank you, my friend. Your positive reaction when I shared it with you was encouragement for me to share it publicly. 🖤🖤🖤
I see you are experimenting more with the appearance of the poem on the page. I like it.
Things that caught my attention (and, as always, the interpretation of THIS reader):
The “too”s are like stair steps leading from one thought to another, until there are no more concrete thoughts, just the excesses left unsaid. And within those “too’s,” nice pairs of synonyms and antonymns, in juxtaposition and overlapping… On the page, it almost looks like a spiral, tornado. Fire/water/wind basic elements…. So, the storm of this realization passes and She knows more of who she is and what she wants, and it isn’t where she was. I really like line “wild things are only broken never tamed” WOW …and so they can mend and be wild again….. “Nevermore,” quoth the raven….. but evermore for you…… Strength and possibilities…..
Any comments from the poet?
>
You have nailed it! And that makes me very happy because it means I did what I wanted to do! The shape of this one came very naturally—I knew it needed to look different on the page, another way of communicating the force of what it says. That you saw it born of a storm is perfect, as it was born of a storm. That the “too’s” are stair steps is perfect. It’s a descent before the rising—and claiming—of those “too’s” that are seen as negatives to some, but that I now see as strengths/positives. So it’s a descent in order to rise. The “wild things” line just dropped into my head, so I pounced on it. I hadn’t considered the mending, though! Thanks for pointing that out! My use of evermore was intentional, of course. I wanted a juxtaposition if EAP’s “nevermore” while still referencing the raven, and that the cage and tomb lay empty “evermore.” Love your thoughts!! Thank you!