Self-Love
I no longer make myself smaller
I eat bread with both hands
and I speak even if my voice is louder
than the men in the room
I do not wait to be asked what I think
I do not correct my language to make it softer
or pad my intelligence in cotton
I do not apologise
for the books I quote
for the silence I keep
for the facts I bring to the table
I do not ask if it makes me difficult
I no longer pretend I don’t see the way they look at women like me
with that cocktail of curiosity and contempt
like we are both threat and temptation
storm and sermon
let them flinch
I was not put here to soothe the fragile myths they call masculinity
I was not born to be good
I was born to be true
and truth has never fit neatly into polite conversation
so I take up space
the way forests do
the way oceans do
unapologetically
and entirely
Dorit d’Scarlett is a Danish-Australian writer whose prize-winning poetry and short stories have been featured in international literary journals, and her long-form fiction has been long-listed for multiple writing awards. At school, she faced cultural bullying as a minority immigrant, and those challenges deeply inform her work, shaping her exploration of identity, belonging, and the emotional landscapes of those caught between worlds.