I have not changed
but I have cycled round again
like tree rings, layer on layer of growth,
branching upon branching

I have not changed
but I have pulled the veil away
layer by layer,
coming towards a clearer focus

All this time I thought that I was changing
but that was part of me —
the ever hopeful slant,
the sense of progress
which has come with me
like my hands, my eyebrows

And I will not change
until the final veil’s lifting
shows what I have always been,
changing me all the way back
through my past, and showing how
I have never changed.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 12, 2018