I have been abandoned
I have been beaten
I have been raped
I have been suicidal
I have hated
what I have been.

Thank God
there was a dream
that was the utter truth
Where the past
was unmade
Where I was unmade
and re-shaped
into the work of art
I had always been.

A child I became
learning anew
what I was made of
but the vision was so
fresh, so pure
the lessons would be so different.

Thank God
I am love now
and a mind willing to see
that body/ego are nothing
but my soul, my soul is life.

D. Bartash
© 4/7/97