Inside myself teems an army.

I know because I watched as the nurse put them there.

A rebel army seething with typhoid, yellow fever, hepatitis.

They are weakened and wounded.... but still they fight.

I am strong enough to conquer them....

.... but I am tired from the effort of it....

and the battle rages on

and I am tired
...........but I am strong
.........................I am a warrior princess

and I get up
and I go shopping for shoes
to defy the rebel armies
to laugh in their faces as they struggle to survive.

I go shopping for shoes that will carry me, on two strong legs, into Africa.
Into the bursting cities where life is good, but dangerous.
Into the villages where poverty swallows entire communities alive and it's teeth are gates that lock them in 'till they can fight no longer and slide deep into it's belly.

My new shoes
and my strong body
will take me into a place where perhaps I will delicately hold a child,
and the hand of a mother,
who are also warrior princesses...
... but without the weakened version of the army that I am battling today...

-the precious immunization-

the virus is too strong when it reaches them-

- - - -and it is winning.

Today I rest and recover from my immunizations. I let my body do wondrous things that I can not see even though I feel the effects of in a groggy way.

Billy and the babes let me sleep late this morning... and made me breakfast...

Truly-

I am strong

I am loved

I am sleepy

...and for some unfathomable reason... I feel the compulsion to make a quilt to snuggle deep inside of.