Shape Shifter

Bionic
Rebuilt
A betrayer at every turn
Shape shifting
landscape
unfamiliar to familiar touch
a roadmap journey
tattooed into flesh
ancestral cries
ashes beneath feet
the sacrifice that passed
so I could rise again
victory emerging
as others mourn my loss:
a manufactured body
no longer woman-true
dominion/possession
a self that responds to my demands
an exorcism beyond me
a devil cast out
and a new self
staring back in the mirror
warrior haggard
champion aglow
a new feminine

Caroline A. Slee, 2016