Reclaiming My Voice

Reclaiming My Voice


I awoke, with the sun shining bright in my eyes
And crawled from the hole I called home, before I realized
That something had changed.

In the reflective river of hope, I peered
Expecting to be savagely attacked by all that I feared,
But something seemed strange.

I pulled back my hair, stared into green pools of despair
And for the first time, realized there was more there
Than I’d ever noticed before.

Cautiously, I examined myself with paranoid expectation
Looking for pain etched deeply in my recollection,
But found not but a healing sore.

I stepped away, one careful foot at a time, waiting
For the demon reaching from the shadows, anticipating
The pain I knew by name.

Instead, my name became a song from the raven’s beak
And all around me, the silence urged me to speak,
But I was still filled with shame.

Then, as I listened closely, tears falling from my face
Another voice echoed, filling the dark and lonely place;
I begged for mercy, sobbing silently.

A calm settled within as the wind soothed my soul
And when the voice sung of my strength, I lost control;
My tears fell with the rain, violently.

The voice screamed in warning as I relived my every fall,
“Pick yourself off the ground, you aren’t meant to crawl!”
And the wall inside me shattered.

On my hands and knees, I pulled air into my chest,
Wondering when I’d stopped knowing my self best,
And given up all that mattered.

A piercing battle cry erupted from a place deep inside
As I surged to my feet and threw my hands to the sky,
Demanding the return of my voice.

With sparkling eyes and the power to command my self
I reached for the woman long ago placed on a shelf
And made the forbidden choice.

Lips opened, and a scream filled the air around me
As I lurched in the memory of who I'm supposed to be;
A scorching fire engulfed the past.

Time stopped as the flames cleansed my imprisoning world,
And in the midst, on my back, new wings unfurled,
And I knew I was free at last.