Unshakable

I was five years old when the world first took what was never theirs to claim leaving heavy shadows in a room where a child should only know a name ​I grew into a girl who walked the schoolyards in worn and frayed clothes surrounded by the whispers and the judgment that only cruel childhood knows ​They measured my worth by the fabric on my back blind to what lived within a quiet unconditional love that refused to let resentment win ​Even when bleeding from their words I held out grace instead of hate protecting a soft heart in a world that tried to make it desolate ​At twelve they brought the heavy news that severed half of who I came from the father I dreamed of meeting was gone a phantom under the sun ​Robbed from birth of the chance to look into eyes that mirrored my own denied that love at first sight a second chance I will never be shown ​They spoke bad of a man I never knew taking away my free will to decide leaving a jagged hole in my soul that no amount of time could hide ​That same year at twelve they tore me from the only safe place I had ever known my grannys warm hands the only caretaker who had made me feel less alone ​Dragged into a house of strangers claiming to be blood I had never seen forced to navigate the coldness of people who were distant harsh and mean ​By thirteen I was put in foster care navigating system after system on my own learning how to survive in a world where I had to raise myself alone ​I fought through every house every transition until I aged out at eighteen standing on my own two feet through horrors no child should have seen ​It was not just life that bruised me it was eyes full of unearned spite people who hated my light and tried to extinguish it into the night ​So I retreated into my own mind keeping to myself to survive the storm learning early that in a world of wolves you have to keep yourself warm ​After aging out I brought my three beautiful babies into this world a mothers sacred promise made only to have the sweetness of infancy stolen in a corrupt wrongful crusade ​Fighting battles in sterile rooms forced to fight for what is rightfully mine for all three of my children watching seasons pass while waiting for justice to align ​Hurdle after hurdle testing how much I could endure proving time and time again that the strong are given no breaks no cure ​Now I am twenty three years old standing in the middle of the ash and flame watching every lie every trial and every fire burn down without shame ​They thought the weight of five stolen chapters would fold me to my knees they thought a broken lineage and stolen years would make me beg and please ​But I stand in my own light owning every single inch they tried to shatter turning every drop of tears into an armor that no weapon can scatter ​I twist the suffering into power I forge the trauma into unbreakable steel I carry a heart that remains whole soft and still able to love and feel ​I was not built for the weak minded ways of those who tried to hold me down my life is written for extraordinary things for a victory and a crown ​The strong do not get a break in a world that tests them day and night they are handed the heaviest shields and forced to lead the fight ​I have walked through darkness that would consume a lesser soul yet I gather up every shattered piece and make myself whole I hold the hands of my three children and lead them toward the dawn showing them that even when broken down a mothers light goes on ​I am the architect of a future no thief can ever steal away forging gold out of the ruins of every bitter yesteryear and day no trial can strip the purpose or the beauty from my name I am the survivor who conquered every wave and every flame ​But hear me when I say this to every shadow that tried to make me break ​I am standing I am breathing I am fierce ​And I am completely irrevocably unbreakable