Beauty lies waiting within the beast

Tufts of hair push out from my knuckles
warming my hands as they brush against my face,
fluffing out,
enveloping my long gnarly nails
painted red at the tips.
 
Lightly scaring my cheek as they trace down
to wipe rouge from my lips,
the blood of men who never should have had a say
in how I looked,
or dressed,
or acted.
 
The audacity dripping
from my each and every “inappropriate” action.
 
They don’t want me to know the power I possess
shaking each coil within my curly mane,
letting the fat at my sides roll out and intimidate,
seduce and suffocate, those who want to throw me to the lions
hungering in the den where they lay.
 
I’ll become one with the beast that lies patient within me,
open the cages to the zoo of animals
you thought you could tame.