Poetry | Growing pains — an allusion to Roman mythology

You were born wholly pure and divine 

Sprinkled in sweet salt and virtue

Pushed by Western winds into the arms of your creator 

An opalescent Pearl from the green foamy sea  

You arrived.

Showered with delicate pink roses and awe, 

Nakedly vulnerable, you were cloaked in silken love and protection 

Welcomed into a world that awaited your arrival with the utmost affection 

Until you grew

Then the world devoured you whole when it saw what you possessed

That potential and power was crushed 

Nipped in the bud, a bouquet that would never be

You lost your ethereal glow and became mortally doomed 

Like a candle cursed without a flame 

No purpose for existence except for tawdry vanity

They wanted to put you on display.

You’ve known emptiness and tragedy, trauma and pain 

But you’ve survived the seas and you can survive 

These times will not crush you

You’re still that glowing baby girl formed from magic and blessings. 

And I know things have been hard, 

But when will you shed your layers?

The ones that have calcified you like an oyster.

Because those layers aren’t you

They’re a part of you, a testament to your history

Each layer sharing a tale 

Like words carved onto your perfectly delicate skin.

Those layers may have been you, but they aren’t the Pearl that rode those waves, 

That innocent baby born thousands of moons ago

She didn’t know what you know now,

So shine like the molten star you are 

Burningly hot and utterly bright

The force of nature you were when you arrived.

You still hold that fire within — your flame able to be rekindled

While innocence is brief 

Divinity is forever

You are a god.

Yes, there is work to be done 

Because right now you are illusion — 

She isn’t you. 

She may look like you and sound like you and smell like you,

But she hasn’t untamed that core,

The promising person who lies below. 

Right now, she is just layers 

And those layers hide you.

So break free from the shell

And liberate the Pearl.