Daughter of the Fireline

⸻

You taught me soft hands, eyes to the floor

Speak when you’re spoken to, never ask for more

Sew up your anger, swallow it down

A good girl don’t make too much sound

You called it love, I called it a cage

You handed me silence, said that was my place

But something was humming under my skin

A wildfire waiting to begin

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And I—I heard my mother in the walls at night

Whispering low, “don’t you dim your light”

⸻

I am not yours to quiet or break

I am the storm you tried to outrun in vain

Every chain you laid, I learned to unmake

I am my mother’s unfinished flame

(backing voices, soft at first)

“Let her burn… let her rise…”

⸻

You weighed my worth in the work I could do

In the meals I made and the blood I grew

Called it devotion, called it my role

But you were just digging a deeper hole

You took my body like it was owed

Like I was a field and you were owed the sow

But I am no land you can claim as your own

I am the reckoning you were not shown

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And I—I hear my sisters in my bones tonight

Breaking their teeth just to bite back right

(low harmony begins)

⸻

I am not yours to quiet or break

I am the storm you tried to outrun in vain

Every chain you laid, I learned to unmake

I am my mother’s unfinished flame

(backing voices stronger)

“Let her burn… let her rise…”

“Let her speak… let her fight…”

⸻

You called me fragile

But I buried you

You called me mercy

I learned the truth

You called me nothing

So I became—

(silence, breath)

Everything

⸻

I am not yours to quiet or break

I am the storm, I am the wave

Every chain you laid lies at my feet

I am the fire you could not tame

(choir, layered and fierce)

“We are the daughters of the fireline”

“We are the voices you buried alive”

I am not small, I am not tame

I am the ending of your old refrain

I carry every woman who came before me

And none of us will bow again

⸻

(rhythmic, almost ritualistic)

“Not yours, not yours”

“Not yours, not yours”

(fading voices)

“Let her burn…”

“Let her rise…”