Confidence

I’m really good at

holding your hand

and keeping up —

skip-step in perfect trust

I like it, too, when you swoop me

high through the air,

our laughter mingling

under the bright sky,

I’m good at

filling up with joy

There have been names

given to me, and to my family,

names establishing our strengths

and our shortcomings,

generations of stories,

many never told, about them

But today I don’t want any name but yours,

don’t want histories, don’t want prognostications —

Today I’ll hold your hand and take your name:

I Am.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 29, 2015