No 
No thank you No thank you   No thank you! 
Just no  
Just not feeling it 
Just not 
not  not not
no   No!   NO!!

What part of no   DON’T you understand? 
N   O   
Please remove your hand 
Please remove your hand 
No 
None of that    None   Nada 
Nada thing   Nothing  

Silence The Unspoken  The Refusal  
Not    the UN-Lived 
Not    the    i couldn’t care less
Not    the silence of indifference or recusal 
nor the conspiracy of consent 
Not the absence of yes 
But no   Just no 

No to submission
No is not    an omission
an act of contrition
Yes is not my religion
I don’t need your permission

I will not submit       
I will not commit 
to yes
I confess     I am human
a  work of fiction
a  contradiction
No does not make me less
I say no to yes

Just yes    to no 
No               to the enslavery of yes 
the submissive acceptance  
the demand and expectation  
the sublimation    of truth and desire 
I’ve burned those bridges 
I set my own house on fire 
and I escaped 

i’ve been beaten kidnapped raped
The rapists   the manipulators   the liars  
the mistakes…they are now erased     
all in my head of course   
(let’s call it a gift…OK?)
I will not be led
                        down that path anymore  
I will impeach and abort  
                           the shoulds and the what ifs
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this

I am the protest  
      the resistance
      the empowerment
of all the burning stars in the sky
you CANNOT see
I am the singing meteor
ghosting all the no-shows
repeat after me   repeat after me
I am not past tense
I am the nonsense of sense
I am just left of right
I won’t take back the night

I am the Visibly invisible
I am the other option
I am the dark the shines
                                 the light