Poem: Resilience

Resilience 

Words by Lucienne Cross
Image by Claire LeFew
QuailBellMagazine.com

There is a resilience
that rises from deep within your flesh.

I’ve heard you say “resiliency”
like it didn’t mean the world,
like it wasn’t conceived in your deepest memories
and fears and foundations and bone marrow.
Like it didn’t travel from your belly,
picking up speed and strength;
gaining confidence
and the fertile manifesto of anger;
getting louder
as it raced past your organs;
gathering momentum
as it whistled by your lungs;
gaining fervor
as it rushed up your throat
and burst into flames,

but came out of your mouth
without a curl of smoke;

as if there was no blazing fire
marking the line between the past –

between every time he pounded your flesh and marrow
with his fists;
between every time your mother ducked to flee his rage – 

and the future,
and the oxygen you stir into every child
with embers in their belly.

And you will teach them that
resilience is everything.
No matter how you say it.

#Unreal #DomesticViolence #Resilience #FendOffTheFire

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