The first time I could feel The walls of cold, Encapsulation, was when I was seven. I just wanted to chase the rabbits, Keep a silkworm in a jar. Climbing up the big walnut tree, And sitting in the California dappled sun, a sweet breeze wafting by… I wondered… who am I? Later that day, My dad sparred with my brother "Rasslin" and I wanted to join in But I can't I'm a girl. It's not proper. I'll grow breasts and need to walk in dresses. I felt the glass dome come over me, The invisible shield to "Protect" me, To "Keep" me. I was special, set aside, captive. I get a barbie and Tinkerbell, a parakeet. my brother gets a Tonka truck and a dog. My brother killed my parakeet. She won't go to heaven. Animals don’t have souls. So says the preacher. I notice my brother breaks my things all through my childhood. Nothing happens. I can’t protect anything I call my own. Later, when I'm nine we move to a town in Oregon My world becomes very small It's church -sized School is difficult. I'm so weird. It shows sometimes, They don’t see my forcefield… the glass dome. I don't know why, but the glass dome I'm under is very palpable to me, But invisible to others, I am shamed into quietness. I don't think I was praised for being Orderly and quiet, I find the edges of my world My brothers world is much bigger. Stay in. Stay quiet. Not One step over. Shouting and… shaming. I'm Of Age. I learned my place. To wear my purity as a merit badge. Dad gets weirder around me. He takes my brother fishing, He takes me on daddy/daughter “dates.” My mom is angry. She wants me on her side. She hates her wifely dome. She's jealous. She's depressed she's going out of her mind. It takes me awhile to learn why. Inside the glass dome, the air thins out, it's stultifying, cloying, suffocating. I will feel anxious and depressed almost all the time. One day, I wanted to get out I learned the price of trying, I watched others who tried to, But their fate did not deter me (Pause) I Began to tap at the glass… Here I sit, decades down a long and winding path. Leaving all I’ve known, on the road less traveled. The road was harder than I dreamed It would be I learned to walk it on my own It was hard But… I… could… move… I’ve freed that girl under glass to drink in the fresh air and reach for a star in the open heavens. Here