She was a strong and beautiful woman,

Full of life, vigor, and confidence.

Yet the cruel hearts of men had tried many times to knock her down;

Men who saw her only as an object, as a thing they had to possess.

Never had a man truly taken the time to understand her,

Rarely did she have the opportunity to be true to herself.

As a young girl she knew adversity before she knew love,

As a woman she experienced hardship more often than happiness.

God had planned for her to be an angel and a goddess,

A woman who held the heavens in her eyes and pure love in her heart.

Now she spends too many of her days in a cold, dark tunnel,

Numb to the world and to the sunlight which tries to show her the way out.

She is determined to survive and so she shall, but at what cost?

She denies her feelings, suppresses her needs, and refuses to trust.

Those who are in need of it will receive her protection and her love,

But at the end of the day she finds that she has none left for herself.

She has been broken many times upon the jagged rocks of despair and betrayal,

Yet she will not languish in peril or cry upon the shoulders of shallow men.

Instead she will rise from these rocks as a Phoenix would rise from its ashes,

And she will continue to have faith even when hope has abandoned her.