I am a sum.
A sum of tape and glue,
Stiches and staples.
Fragments of a whole,
Broken and unstable.

A prisoner to circumstance.
A victim of the cruel lash of reality.
A slave to couldves and shouldves.
Of dos and donts,
Of haves and have nots,
Of this verses that.

But
I am more.
More than his grip of silence
More than their shadows of doubt.
More than those who rebuked my defiance
More than he who dared to stifle my truth.

No longer a prisoner
No longer a slave
No longer a victim
But a bird free of her cage.