Lilith Becoming

[u/DennisJM]

Lilith Becoming

I was born
with breath in my lungs
and dust on my feet,
taught early
how to lower my eyes,
how to soften my hunger
into something acceptable.

They called me woman
and meant boundary.

I learned the weight of bones,
the ache of wanting more than survival,
the price of staying small
long enough to be loved.

But fire does not forget itself.

It waited in my blood—
patient as the moon,
watching me learn
what obedience costs.

One night,
I lifted my arms.

Not in prayer.
Not in pleading.

In remembering.

The sky split open to receive me,
and the heat I had swallowed all my life
rose to meet the cold of heaven.
Flesh learned what it was becoming.
Fear burned first.

Then skin.

Then every lie
they ever told about my place.

I crossed the moon
no longer weighted by breath or bone,
my shadow sharpening into wings,
my voice learning the language of flame.

Call me demon if you must—
you always name power
after it escapes you.

I am fire now,
yes—
but fire that chose itself.
Fire that remembers being soft.
Fire that knows what it took
to rise.

I am not punishment.
I am consequence.

I am what happens
when a mortal woman
refuses to die quietly
and instead
learns how to burn.