“Overcoming”

Conqueror of all.
Scared
but fearless.
I never let them see me sweat.

Wanting more
than I was given
or had a right to ask for,
-according to her.

Wanting more than she
wanted for me.
A bright future.
A way out.

Always different.
Searching for a better life,
determined not to be
-her.

The road less traveled
was traveled well…
just not by anyone,
that I knew.

Constantly reminded
of being unworthy of the best.
Her toxic words,
rang empty in my ears.

For I was a kid with dreams…
ambitious goals and
the will to over come
insurmountable obstacles.

Willing only to see
the brightness of a future,
being denied me
by a legacy of defeat.

Her words never spoken for our ears nor hearts to hear;
“Do better.”
“Be better.”
“You can do anything.”
“Live your dreams.”
“Be what I could not.”

Instead, her love was locked up tight
in a vault of lies and hate,
stripped of nurturing and guidance
for the fruit she bore.

Forbidden to become what she could not.
“You are not good enough.”
Echoed through the halls of my childhood,
trapping me in her misery.

Plotting my escape, ready to leap,
at any chance.
THE chance.
MY CHANCE.

The day of reckoning
was soon upon us;
daughter number two
with feather’s ablaze, leapt.

Fueled by a fire
deep within my belly.
Her toxic words,
were lies.
I AM GOOD ENOUGH!