A Spoken Word (in progress) for mi Karina...

Began for Karen, alas is as yet unfinished

 I am alive and strong, breathing air to my lungs, but cursed from day one. My body born, malformed and meek. Doctor's prognosis said I wouldn't live out the week. But here I am: living this life, dodging the knife. Playing the roles I was given - mother to wife. A child, given the option to live or die, met them dead in the eye and said, "You take that lie. It's yours, not mine. There's a higher plan for me." Although even at 33, an age I was doomed to never see, I know not yet what that plan may be. 

        "Dangerous Curves Ahead" is my life's road sign. Enduring each day with dangerous curves of my spine. Living: hard enough on it's own, without additional pains. The pressure, the stress, the unwanted strains. The world much different from my small-framed view. Like it, or not, I'm much different than you. But, in the same breath, I'm the same. A strong-willed woman, with a heart to tame. Beating behind a delicate cage, stands a heart to love, to embrace, to engage. A stroke of fate, and the day turns one more page. A miraculous event, when one year was an impossible age.

        Pushing limits, testing fate, never taking a seat with an empty plate.