They said I was too loud for strings,  

Too cold for jazz,  

Too sharp for theory,  

Too something for a room full of legacies,  

With softer scars.

I didn’t beg.  

I didn’t break.  

I just stopped speaking in key.

I hit C like a hammer.  

Let it ring like a name you don’t say anymore.

You pulled me out of the class  

Like I pulled truth from Dominic’s fucking phone.  

You said I was angry.  

I said I was awake.

I was born in a house full of secrets  

With a staircase built from silence.  

Now I scream in tune.  

You call that unstable?  

I call it restraint.

You should’ve let me play.  

Instead you taught me to fracture.  

Now every chord is a warning.  

And every show’s a threat  

I make beautiful.

I didn’t ask for the flat.  

Didn’t ask for the blood money guilt nest.  

But I took it.  

Because survival’s not a statement,  

It’s logistics.

Petersham windows don’t ask questions.  

They just show you where the sky ends.  

That’s how I learned to write without asking.  

To practice until my hands remembered  

What my brain was trying to forget.

They said I should’ve calmed down.  

I said they should’ve noticed sooner.  

I said I was leaving.  

The walls said thank you.

I was raised by a man who taught law  

But never learned mercy.  

By a woman who smiled like she was drowning  

And no one asked if she could swim.

You want to call me unstable?  

Try calling me in range.  

You should’ve let me play.  

Now I don’t need your permission.  

I bring noise like scripture  

And I don’t miss.

He taught me silence.  

She taught me how to wear it.  

They taught me how to lie for love.  

I taught myself to stay alive without forgetting.

Now the band plays,  

And I don’t apologise  

For what happens next.

This isn’t therapy.  

This is proof.  

This isn’t anger.  

This is discipline.  

This isn’t your story.  

It’s mine  

With the names burned out  

But the sound intact.

You should’ve let me play.

That’s Isla.  

Not sad, not unstable, not mythologised.  

Operational. Lethal. Grounded. Played out.

Not seeking peace  

Building power  

From every system that tried to contain her.

You want more from this session?  

The verse she freestyles backstage?  

The moment in rehearsal when the rest of the band realises she’s not even trying yet?

Just say so.

Isla's here now.