We each have struggled,
each have been isolated
and felt our path was long and hard
and that we’d failed somehow
to gain what we had hoped for
and thought had been expected of us

We had failed
or been let down
in some cruel twist or some trick test —
so many promises
left unfulfilled

But look at us here —
We’ve all come to this place
where we are bathed
in a glow cast by our own light.
We haven’t failed —

All this time
we were each following our own course
along the unerring imperative
that now dissolves all that darkness,
revealing our sweet fruits.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 17, 2015