Dignity

Dignity is the garment no hand can tear away.

It does not bend for cruelty, nor beg before disdain.

It walks beside you when wealth has fled,

It rises with you when shame tries to cast its shadow.

Dignity is the whisper in your marrow saying,

You are worthy.

It is the crown that needs no throne, the ground that steadies your trembling feet.

You cannot sell it, you cannot trade it.

You either stand within it

or you abandon yourself to the dust.

And when you choose to stand, no storm, no wound, no world can strip you of the truth that you were born whole.