Broken Chains
Broken Chains is a poem about fear, resilience and the struggle to break free from the things that hold us back.
Some things don’t break us all at once.
They tighten slowly. Quietly. Until we barely notice how heavy they have become.
Broken Chains is about fear, limitation and the moment something finally begins to give — when the first crack appears and a little light gets through.
BROKEN CHAINS
Stronger than steel
Coarser than stone
Hollowed of hope
Imbued with pain
You break my body
Trap my mind
Crush my soul
Tightening every time
I look away
Whether I see you
Or not
You are always there
Always present
My chains of fear
The more I struggle
The more I resist
The stronger you become
Until I don’t.
Not anymore.
I accept my limitations.
I move through them.
Past them.
And finally hear a crack.
The chains are breaking —
Light leaking from the darkness
Until at last
I walk away
Free.
— J. S. Summers
Behind the Words
Fear can wrap itself around us so slowly that we stop noticing its weight.
Broken Chains is not really about defeating fear. It is about learning to move through it — accepting what we cannot change while refusing to let it define everything that comes next.
Sometimes freedom does not begin when every chain disappears.
Sometimes it begins with the first crack.