VOICES ON THE INSIDE

Childhood taught me that silence is survival
that every promise had all the substance of a cloud.
An ancillary character, I quickly learned to gauge
the emotional temperature of a room,
born to bear the brunt of drug-fueled paranoia and anger.
Opinion earned only the dreaded slide of leather
across belt loops a sound that echoes through decades.
Without voice, my mind became my prison–and my SALVATION.
Those formative years did as they so often do.
Shaped.
Molded.
Broke me down to my most base elements
before forming me into the woman I am today.
STRONG. CAPABLE. TALENTED. LOVED.
Today, my mind is a trusted advisor and friend,
rather than the enemy it could have been
My mind carries me far away from circumstance,
allowing me to create whole universes in which to thrive.
I scream into the wind, my imagination fierceness personified.
I have been forged in fire–and have become
UNBREAKABLE.