A pad challenge response from Linda M Crate

i define myself
watching from a distance,
you can lose your whole life
waiting to become;

and so i decided to believe
in myself and my dreams—

for it didn't matter if others
could see what i saw,
only that i could get there;

because there's nothing
this simulation can do to hold
me back from becoming
who i truly am—

i am magic, i am a melody,
a poem, a song, i am the crow,
the fox, the creek, the tree;
i am immortal and i will never
be forgotten no matter how
many discard me—

i define myself although many
others have tried, they don't
know my heart or the mythology
of these bones.
-linda m. crate