A Stillness After the Storm

I have wrestled change like a tide in the dark,


Each wave a whisper of all that could break.


Futures unknown, the weight of the stark,


Years spent trembling at each step I’d take.

I stitched my courage from moments so small,


A breath, a word, a hand held steady,


Told myself I’d rise through every fall,


Even when I never felt ready.

And now


Here I am, unshaken this week,


The silence of fear no longer loud.


I stand not hidden, not quiet, not meek


But present, upright, quietly proud.

This calm is no accident, no borrowed grace,


It is mine, earned through nights I endured.


A shock, yes, to see my own steady face


Where once only doubt had appeared.

Let this be my anthem, whispered or cried:


That I did not fold, though I could have fled.


The work I did walked with me inside,


And now it walks beside me instead.

I won’t claim I’m finished, progress is flight,


But look how I soar where I once held tight.