Timing

The accolade came to her

twenty years late —

making the memories,

buried and filed away,

shift in their places, resettle

It was a strange feeling —

pleasure to hear it

but also an emptiness —

whistle of echoes

down so many changes

(children grown up in that time)

But she felt it was fitting

to hear of it now,

after she’d traveled 

through all those long valleys,

after surrendering so many layers

of thoughts about herself,

In this moment

of owning her power,

pulling it in to herself,

Standing up.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 25, 2014