I was born too small to a mom

Too young to know any better

My dad walked away with the stroke of a pen

Severing his love from me

I broke my left elbow twice and

Split my head open by five years old

Glimpsing my own fragility

A skip-ahead kid in second grade

I broke my new glasses after being labeled

A four-eyed geek, which I wasn’t

Then I was a step-child (again)

This time with four siblings I craved, whom

Wanted nothing to do with me, the

Spawn of the devil-temptress who stole their father

I longed for the dad they claimed as their own and who couldn’t see past his own grief

To see me

At 14 my genetically curved spine overtook me

Swallowed me whole and made me

Into the Bionic Girl, full of metal and grit

Like a Transformer

Followed by months out of school freshman year and

Fiberglass back braces when I returned and

Being knocked on between classes

I laughed along with their ridicule and joined in

Rather than cry

I tried so hard my entire youth

To fit into this mold, to be normal

Which I so obviously wasn’t

And now all these years later

I can see so clearly that

I was never meant to fit

I was not built for the narrow path

I was made to stretch and expand

To push every boundary

To overflow and explode from the mold

Into the beautiful creation I am now

To embrace and treasure and love

Me.

Copyright 2020, all rights reserved. All images taken by me unless otherwise stated.