A sword was tattooed along her spine The word Brave branded the back of her neck Courage etched on the inside of her right wrist Strength could be found written on her left She gripped her little boy’s hand Clutched her baby girl closer to her chest Her eyes never left the gazes of strangers Silently braced herself for the long trip ahead Her body was Rome And every man she met was Nero Constantly burning her down in their grandeur Leaving her to slowly rebuild from the rubble Each of the fathers left her The way they came in The front door Not even leaving a forwarding address She changed her number So the first one couldn’t solicit her pity She moved to a different town So the second couldn’t infest her doorway with his shadow Relationships had become war Battling over the division of her body Men were eager to seize the area below the waist Taking her heart and soul as hostage Her emotions were casualties Happiness, love, trust slaughtered, hung upon the barbed conversations Sadness vultured and scavenged their corpses While rage and fear made ground upon the battlefield of her body Standing toward the horizon She looks in the eyes of her children for hope Weakness, vulnerability threatening to shatter her resolve Finding in strength in their kisses every night Determination to survive, to be strong for she held their universe upon her shoulder She told me she knew how Atlas felt Slumped under the pressure to persevere But as I watch them play during the day, sleep at night I feel a peace that I have chased for so long in a few fleeting men In the end, she told me Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a lover or a wife Maybe I was just supposed to be a mother And all those men mini trials before obtain the utopia I find in my children’s smiles