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