There once was a little girl
Fair skin
Dark eyes
Long locks the color of maple branches

She lived in a caravan
Travelers
Blood but never family
Day after day they went
Forgetting her places
Blaming her for their lack of success
Outcast
Not like them
Cramped and sore from the constant instability

On went the years
On she went
Growing
Excelling
Never enough
Never seen

Long limbed and lean
Hair worn high and proud
She was learning to leave them behind
Their words thickening her skin
Becoming armor
A beautiful girl with a sharp tongue and wicked right hook
Intelligence and a subtle grace that she rarely let others see
Indifference and strength far more valuable assets to exhibit
She grew into what she needed to be
Showed what she needed to show

Until the day finally came
Leaving to start her own story
Standing in the sun
Gazing at the world around her

The pains had grown unbearable
Her back and neck needing to crack

In frustration she twisted
Putting all her years into it
Putting the disappointment and the determination
The pain and her perseverance
And she twisted

With a sound that rumbled through the earth
And shook the very stones at her feet
A moment of release felt through every inch of her

Breathing out a breath that she hadn’t know she had been holding her whole life
A shadow on the ground growing
She raised her eyes to the sky with reverence
Huge beautiful scaled wings now gracing the world around her
Her shoulder blades adorned
After years of carrying around the judgement of the ones closest to her
The weight of her new wings felt like nothing

Now she was truly free
Painless
Her own
And ready for everything