A poem: Crowned by what I endured

I ran after echoes of what I once planned

footsteps of promises dissolved in the sand

Each dream wore my face,then learned to flee.

A future that waved and refused to be me.

I chased them through alleys of what might have been,

passed doors I was afraid to walk in

their laughter was faint like a half remembered tune,

still warm with the glow of an almost too soon.

At last l slowed down and realized,

some dreams are teachers, not prizes to gain.

I carry their light, though the path had to bend.

And not all dreams are lost, some change shape at the end.

Finally l step out of the quiet corners of my life

where my name was a whisper I barely answered.

Years taught me how to shrink, how to bend

so others would stand tall.

I gather the courage to reclaim what I gave away; my voice,my spine, my worth and

my unfinished becoming.

I stand where the shadow ends and l begin,

No longer asking for permission to exist.

The darkness I endured did not defeat me, it prepared me

From it I rise whole and my own.