Not Worth a Penny

You told me I wasn’t worth 
a penny, my name’s Penny. 
How could I deny myself? 
You told me I wasn’t lady,
fancy, you call me my baby. 
Why do you diminish me? 
The smaller I am, the easier
you can control my wishes. 
You repeated these words
until I thought I wasn’t me, 
broken images rehashed.
I couldn’t escape the echo. 
Penny, go to sleep, penny
here, Penny’s there, a coin 
worth cero doesn’t exist.  
Ambush! Tortured thought,
a dilemma drowns in enemy 
lines. Don’t touch me any
more, but I am eager to be
cared within. Does care mean
disbelief? You control as I let
you touch the memories set
to a hit song as I walk down 
the mountain of trust. You,
you used the power I gave
you, you mistook my gentle 
insight for a fragility you, 
you could dominate, but you,
you are wrong. I double you
wrong. I struggle to say you,
your name after having lost 
mine after a battle of what’s 
true, what’s respect, what’s 
love. I won’t go back to you. 
And that’s that, come back, 
and you’ll find me not, nasty
is not tasty any longer, yuck.   
I won’t accept words as true 
that diminish me. Not again, 
not ever again. I promise me
a dove even as I endure pain.