"Not Quite Yet"

To be branded,
To be labeled,
In many ways can seal your fate.
Like a casket that's been closed,
With no air to feel your body... Only a mind filled up with hate.
To overcome death,
Can be the hardest to recover,
Maybe not for all,
But for those who lose their breath... and constantly smother.
It all starts with a label,
Like a shadow.... it follows.
I take a breath and swallow....
Still branded.
Still labeled.
Still hollowed...
Though I live, I live,
Not for myself but for my last chance to give.
To give life and do away with these labels,
Should I stay forever branded.... I'll stay forever abled.

--Darken Graves