Rib Cage

24 ribs

Lined up like sentinels

Guarding my heart and lungs

A treasure chest

Holding life itself.

Passion and Breath.

Knit together in my mother’s womb

Soul lessons from my parents

                And my parents’ parents

                                And their parents

All imprinted genetically

In my infrastructure

It’s literally

IN MY BONES.

Hands clasped

Fingers intertwined

Here is the church

Here is the steeple

Open the doors

And see all the people.

These ribs, a skeletal cage

Comprised of those who came before me

E X P A N D I N G and  >contracting<

With every breath

Trapping trauma

Clutching my heart to itself

What began with the intention

                Of protection

Became the tight squeeze of

                Overprotection

A spiritual prison

My freedom of expression

                Immobilized

                Repressed

It’s crowded in my chest

Burdened with these familial guests

My heart beats against

Its suit of armor

My lungs withholding breath

Ever playing the martyr.

Digging through the marrow

Excavating old beliefs.

Extricating what is mine

                And what was theirs.

Loss of stability

Causing fragility.

SNAP!

A small break provides some brief

Relief

Then the fault line

Refusing to fall in line

This time

Sends fractures

Throughout the boney guards

One by one

CRACKING me open.

Excruciating pain of several generations

Previously unspoken

Crawls up my throat

Crying out:

Broken!  We’re BROKEN!

And as the physical pain subsides

We recognize

That the cage

Is OPEN.

A doorway through which

My ancestors unhealed wounds depart

The spaciousness created

Revealing my own heart

Room to breathe.

Room for ME.

24 ribs

Proclaiming, I’m free.