Leash

A leash is used for something that one desires to control. Leashes on pets keeps them safe; leashes on children is questionable though it is intended to serve the same purpose. What about the kid of leash that isn't exactly visible?

Also called emotional manipulation, it is the tug you feel when you cross an invisible line set for you by the one you love. Ideally; when one loves another: you set the circle so far and wide: that your love sets them free.

I was loved by a man who drew a circle around me so tight, that I couldn't move for fear of losing his affection. A birthday gift gone wrong, a dinner reservation he didn't approve or a baby bed frame that was not second hand. A cleaner's coupon was my most coveted birthday gift and formal clothes to interview were stealthily purchased with money earned through dance lessons.

The noose grew tighter and not looser once I went to work. Add a tightened noose to a greater workload and public humiliation: the knot of love loosens replaced with the rage of a scorned woman.

A woman scorned and humiliated. Her spirit will carry the strength of the winds. Her gaze will pick up every plot and her breath will be fire. She will not rest till she has protected her offspring and she will stop at nothing to tell the truth.

The leash broke when he plotted her destruction. It broke when he forbade her the one thing she held dear: her family. The leash broke when she realized she was not loved: she was enslaved.

Today. No golden card or million dollar mansion can make her go back. A golden cage and a silver leash does not begin to compensate for a child's laughter unfettered; the breath of fresh air outside a home and the sense of lightness with which she can sleep: not fearing a monster entering the bedroom.