Eclipse

Change didn't come quickly.

It came in slowly, tentatively,

like a child on their first day at school.

Its foundation sifted in with the wind each night,

grain by grain, layer by layer. Until one day I woke up

and realized I had walls. I had somehow become a

home for myself.

The roots of trauma, now yellowed and withered, fell

away in the wind.

The past no longer hot gossip I exploded onto friends.

And the men

I met were

different.

Gentle, complete

beings who knew

themselves well.

No need to impress

or prove their wealth

I realized I did it.

I’d built my own life

And I did it without

having to be a

mother or a wife

Slowly but surely

my desire to change

had finally eclipsed

my desire to stay the same.