You can count the rise and fall of my chest,
cut me down the middle, look with interest,
count concentric rings around my heart stressed
with every beat.
But the life I live cannot be undressed

Nor can it be stretched, to stand ***** to rule,
from the cotton blue plaid and scuffed shoes of school,
to the ale-stained cruel brute who made a fool
like me deplete.
This life, nothing more or less than spirit and tool.

My warrior heart was not birthed but braved.
My best qualities were no prize for being well behaved
but a treasure unearthed with a plaque engraved
for she who will defeat
because the life I live is the life that I saved.