The Birth of a Giant

<The Birth of a Giant>

by Jenny Jiyoung Han

I was a small, translucent fracture,

cradled in the womb of a twisted flower field,

while time pressed softly against my back.

In the deepest silence,

beneath my skin,

my first bone cried out—

and that cry was the beginning.

Starved petals, like splinters of frozen dawn,

brushed my flesh,

while fingers that had never unfurled,

not even in dreams,

opened at last.

I grew.

The tongue that once swallowed its own voice

now spoke a language sharp enough to rip the clouds.

In the pleated air,

my shadow

rose like a mountain range.

What they feared

was never my rage,

but my love—

a love that built its cathedral in my bones,

arching high to hold the sky’s great weight.

Now I stand,

beyond humiliation, silence, neglect—

a giant

who can no longer hide.