Her mother gave her roses.
Her father gave her steel.
Life gave her the serpent.

Not a curse—
a reminder:
survival has a soft face
and a sharp one.

She isn’t cruel.
She’s precise.
Too gentle to be heartless,
too sharp to be deceived.

She is the balance—
the bloom and the bite.

Venom & Virtue.
Softness with a spine.
A warning wrapped in a rose