Poem
Evolution
An intentional transformation
There is a version of me still
huddled beneath down-sheltered dreams
Safe in body, but wrought of mind
Swaddled, warm, she blinks
back a silent war waged between waking
Synapses snap in resistance
A crackle of guilt ripples
her spine electrified a Jacob’s ladder
Paying penance for insolence
It is the absence, undoing
of every promise made to the version of me
She fails daily to be
Yet, here is another version
dawn bright, yawn smile, wind-whipped and gay
Tackling the sodden trail
This me has overcome history,
habituation, resistance, and doubt doubt doubt
To walk alone into the woods
This She tackling the dread beast
and donning his mantle to greet the breaking sun
Footfalls carry Her soft tattoo
I leave her to her cozy disgrace
strain solo against the landscape’s rise and fall
Shed the carapace of once was
© Aspen Blue 2021
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