#phoenix

“The poem tells the story of someone who has been dismissed and devalued by an institution because of disability. The speaker recounts how others assumed they couldn’t succeed, how the system labeled them “no longer viable,” and how they were forced to start over—taking entrance exams again as if their previous experiences meant nothing.

The institutional gatekeeping is compounded by gaslighting—denying or minimizing the speaker’s lived experiences. Despite endless medical tests and X-rays, despite being written off and reduced to their disability status, the speaker makes a defiant declaration: they will rise anyway.

But this isn’t just about personal resilience or fighting through adversity alone. The resurrection imagery is explicitly Christian—the speaker will rise “like the phoenix, but with Christ.” There’s an acknowledgment that God’s ways transcend the limited, discriminatory judgments of human institutions.

It’s essentially a testimony of survival and transcendence in the face of ableism, combining righteous anger at systemic injustice with deep spiritual faith. The speaker refuses to be defined by others’ limitations and instead claims their own narrative of rising, healing, and overcoming—not despite their experiences, but transformed through them, with divine support.”