“You are strong”

Distant words fall on deaf ears.

They shatter on the glass pains that surround the darkness she has made her home.

In here, she is senseless. Hopeless.

Limp in the arms of those who carry her,

Those who fight for her,

Those who long to fuel her withered being,

That which she cannot do on her own.

“You are strong”

A distant whisper,

Seeping through newly formed cracks in the glass.

Threads of golden hope swirling through the blackness,

And drape her lifeless limbs.

She can hear, but she does not believe.

Numb to their power, she cowers in self hate.

Yet she clings to the shining threads of promise.

“You are strong”

Words she hears with clarity now.

They fracture her dark world and allow her to feel.

Her skin is sensitive to the breath of light that seeps through.

Step by step,

She inches closer to the aperture.

Feeding on the strength of those around her,

She allows herself to fight.

“I am strong”

She echoes these words under her breath.

Inhaling the newly discovered incandescence of the world around her,

She feels it’s life coursing through her veins.

With every step, she wages war.

And with every victory, she moves further from the shell she once was.

She is finding her feet again.

Rediscovering what it is like to be alive.

“I am strong”

She sings at the top of her lungs.

Now the captain of her own ship, she faces the world with the strength of an army.

She feels the power of her body as she climbs to new heights.

The power of her mind as her demons wither.

The power of her heart as she provides strength for others.

While she will never be free of the shadow of her past,

She basks in the light of her new life.

Freedom is hers,

And she dances in it’s beauty.