Unbreakable 

Childhood taught me that silence is survival
that every promise had all the substance of a cloud.
An ancillary character, 1 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.