She painted self-portraits & took selfies,
wrote memoirs & autobiographies,
leaving journals, tapes, & videos,
so that her story would live on,
buried in cyberspace
for her descendants to cite.

Brandon broke her heart,
Brendan left her at the altar,
& Braden, for another woman.
As for Brady Bannon,
he was the one she eviscerated in her book.

Her USB drive was an orphanage,
till she found homes for all of her work.

He was her rough draft when she married him,
her working draft during their marriage,
her heavily-edited final draft when they divorced—
leaving him a man of much fewer words.

She’d went back to school after 15 years,
32 going on 22,
& halfway through her HIT degree,
she wondered if she’d made the right choice;
until she realized it would be that degree
that would help her invest in herself
so she could be a writer, always.