Author’s Note

This poem came from a simple thought: if you love someone, you have to love the person—not merely the role you want them to play.

A Person First pushes back against the idea that protection, tradition, or romance gives someone permission to control another person’s voice, choices, or identity. A partner is not an accessory to display or a puppet to move around. She is a person first—with her own voice, her own wings, and her own agency.

Love should make room for someone to sing.

— Rowan Evans

A Person First
Poetry by Rowan Evans

I’ve been stuck on this thought,
it’s been on my mind a lot—
why when some guys say they love women,
does it feel like they really don’t love women?
It’s like they’ve got a songbird,
but they don’t want to hear her sing—
like they’ve got an angel,
but they want to clip her wings—

even in traditional gender roles,
you are not supposed to control—
protection doesn’t mean silence,
you’re supposed to be a team—
if you think otherwise,
you’re entirely misguided—

because she is a person first—

not an accessory,
and if that’s something
you can’t see—
then you don’t want a wife,
just a puppet on strings.

Journey into the Hexverse

[Half a Picture]
What happens when someone falls in love with the person they discover through your poetry? Half a Picture explores the strange intimacy between writer and reader—and the distance between seeing someone’s mind through their words and truly knowing the whole person.

[Caged Birds Don’t Bow (Remix)]
A defiant remix of Rowan Evans’ “Caged Birds Don’t Bow,” confronting control, possession, and insecurity through the imagery of a bird breaking free from its cage and reclaiming its wings.

If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]