Reclaiming power

Why not?
One. I don't need a man to feel completed, I operate under my own command and I follow my own manual.
Two. I don't know where your hands have been, fingertips that have a tendency to wander past the point of indecency.
Three. If your skill at spitting game is any indication of your ability to use your lips, then I'm pretty sure that I'm not interested anyway.
Four. You asked me, baby why not? Why not just give this night a shot?
I'll tell you. I prefer to wake up in my own bed without regrets from the night before.
Five. You say my name like you're talking about your favorite stripper.
Six. I'm surprised you remember my name at all.
Seven. I don't care about your affections or who's an object of them. In case you forgot to notice, I'm a woman- not an object.
Eight. It's been said before- My short skirt is not and invitation, a provocation, or
an indication that I want it, or give it, or that I hook.
Nine. I'm pretty sure that you don't care about my major or my family or how my week has been, because you keep staring about a foot below where my eyes are.
Ten. Because I respect myself. Because I like to dance like there are diamonds between my thighs. Because I don't need your eyes or fingers to crawl over my skin like cockroaches. Because I don't want to. Because I don't want to. Because I don't want to.
That should be enough reason for you.
But it wasn't.

My lack of interested only made you push harder; you believed that you had a right to what is rightfully mine.
Playing with my psyche like it was a new toy, toying with my better judgment because you knew I was already inebriated and prevented from spilling sweet soliloquies from my toungue about the fact that I can do better.
that when you asked to feel your skin next to mine, I didn't want to.

but you kept asking, why not?
and I couldn't come up with a reason.

So I'm standing up here, two years later and a hell of a lot stronger
Stripping my past down in front of strangers
and I'm more naked in front of this crowd than I ever was in front of you
because I'm up here by choice.

So this is the only moment you'll get in my memory
knowing that the scars you left on my body in invisible ink weren't strong enough to resist the eraser of my own conviction that this wasn't my fault.
that your idea of a good time required me to feel broken and shamed for months afterwards.
I walk with my head high
and a glow behind my eyes
because you don't have any power over me.

After all, that's all this was from the beginning-
you took a hold of the wheel and steered that night to a place I thought I'd ever end up
but I'm the only licensed pilot of my confidence, of my future, of myself
so you want a reason for why not?
I couldn't think of any when I needed to
but now I realize
that I didn't have to give you one.
and you know what?
I still don't.

because I don't want to.