WHEN YOU NEED BOUNDARIES

Poem

There is a storeroom inside out hearts and it is where we keep

all our guilt / the guilt of not knowing that even though we love our

parents / we are happier when we are not in their company / A

friends once told me that growing up meant that you parents

go from being gods to human / that losing faith in them is a

rite of passage / Once we were young enough to believe / they

were both gods / that magic was real / before 'because I said so'

stopped being good enough / and instead became the storm

before the hurricane starts / before resentments tinged the edges

of every conversation / before we know not to question God /

when once upon a time we believed in everything we were told /

Now we grow older / build our own gods / and ask for respect in

a way our parents aren't used to.

@Nikita Gill from These are the Words. Fearless Verse to Find Your Voice, MacMillan 2022