No More Chains – by Heather Mirassou

I unzipped my backpack of silence, 
tossed out the shame stitched deep in the seams.
Each memory, each bruise, each whispered lie 
I let them scatter like dead leaves in the wind.
No more hiding in locked rooms of myself,
No more shrinking in doorways when rage wore a familiar face.
I am not an echo of his voice,
 I am not the cage he built.
I am a crack in the wall, 
where the sunlight broke anyway.
I am the sound running not from, but toward something new. 
Toward breath, sky and me.
My backpack is empty now, except for courage.