Brave

I wouldn't look very brave to you,
There's nothing on my face that'll say so,
But I could tell you tales of nightmares,
That I've been through,
But you'll barely hear them and find yourself shaken;

Have you witnessed being a victim to 'rape'?
Have you seen yourself been literally 'sold'?
Have you witnessed yourself become the easy object of 'lure'?
Have you heard your own distant wild cries in your nightmares?
Have you lived without knowing if food were there tomorrow?
Have you clung on to the last string of hope outside the hospital?
Have you felt helpless with a draining bank balance?
Have you been promised and broken and played with?
Have you been nearly dead?
Have you gasped for breadth to save your own family?

Maybe not,
But people go through that,
I've gone through that,
So I might just know a little more,
What life is about,
And what it is not......

I might just have been braver than you,
In my own docile way,
For I fought all that and I'm still here,
Surviving, living each day,
Trying to make it through.....

We all have our own stories,
Sometimes they are nightmares!