Truth rising like dawn
starts to reveal your form —
things you weren’t sure were part of you
start to stand out, you glimpse
the clarity of your imperative

And you discern
that you can never settle
for store-bought explanations
of what you are,
you can never settle for a life
that falls in a conforming line,
you can’t ignore integrity

What might have seemed
like just a few small harms
(not your concern, dictated, as they are,
by factors outside your control)
become abhorrent, become impossible

You see that you are all good,
and nothing else has any rights to your expression.
You see that standing up for this
is what you have to do.
No tallying of consequences.
The truth has risen.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 3, 2016