Change didn't come quickly.

It came in slowly, tentatively,

like a child on their first day at school.


Its foundation sifted in with the wind each night,

grain by grain, layer by layer. Until one day I woke up

and realized I had walls. I had somehow become a

home for myself.


The roots of trauma, now yellowed and withered, fell

away in the wind.

The past no longer hot gossip I exploded onto friends.


And the men

I met were
different.


Gentle, complete

beings who knew

themselves well.


No need to impress

or prove their wealth

I realized I did it.


I’d built my own life

And I did it without

having to be a


mother or a wife
Slowly but surely

my desire to change


had finally eclipsed

my desire to stay the same.