I love watching TV. There are moments in a script where the characters are talking to me.

No, not in the I hear voices kind of way, or the narcissistic idea that this was written just for me. It’s more an inner knowingness telling me to listen. That what is being said I need to hear. This week’s wisdom came from Scandal.

Olivia was sharing that her father wanted to put her on a plane. Send her away to begin again elsewhere, fresh. She was lamenting why she hadn’t gone. Abby asked ” Do you want to know what Olivia Pope would say?” She told her:

“You don’t get to run. You’re a gladiator. Gladiators don’t run. They fight. They slay dragons. They wipe off the blood and stitch their wounds and live to fight another day. You don’t get to run.

Gladiator

Birthed from the tenuous space
between joy and pain
diving inward
it’s a fight for air.
For survival

Culling my ego
cutting pieces of my heart,
I give away too much.

This Roadmap of scars-
bones turned to dust,
brittle under the weight
of unraveled hope.

Bloodied, bruised and burned
my face streaked with inken tears.
Rage encased by grace.
I bear my soft underbelly

The bow of a great ship.
My vertebrae twisted
impaled by the truth, I AM
embarking on a solitary pilgrimage.
My heart this vessel’s captain

Truth demands reckoning
Integrity comes at a cost
The narrative is bloody
But I fight for it, unapologetic
Fearlessly facing my demons

No longer imprisoned by self-doubt
Or surrounded by ghosts
disguised as ashes
I plunge into the fire
Feel its transformative burn

Dismantling my past
Rebuilding the present
I steadily move forward
On my journey home
Freedom will come

For I am a Gladiator

Written for Day 6 of NaPoWriMo