I Remember

Dedicated to my brother, Timmy, and the others who did not survive and to those who do not celebrate Mother’s or Father’s Day by Amy Barnes

From my birth on, you each landed multi-levels of abuse on my tiny shoulders.

I should not have survived, but I did.

I should have grown up to become the weapon you tried to make me but I defeated you and four generations of child abuse.

I did not become the weapon you tried to create.

I turned myself instead into a testament of the strength of one human against immense odds.

According to your plan and urging, I should have committed suicide, but I did not.

Instead, I taught myself what love is and turned my life and work into bringing good into the world.

I was too little to help those you hurt

I had no control over the people you chose to be.

But know this Every time you claim you could not be different, and you had no choice, remember me.

I prove all of your lies and excuses wrong.

With every breath I take, I defeat you. As you sink into the rot you created and prepare to answer for your crimes in the highest of courts, the one not made by man, know that I rise in spite of you, and, given the chance, I will testify against you, because I can do something you thought you had broken and erased, I remember.