Don’t worry — after you’ve left behind
everything you thought you were —
your quirks and your requirements,
your suffering and dearly held delights,
after you’ve abandoned
all the things you once described as “me”,
you’ll still recognize yourself

It won’t be like a distant memory,
vague and foggy, held as maybe true,
or it will be that way for just a little while
like fog at dawn

And that clean brilliance,
that sun-on-dewdrop freshness
of your being,
that young and smooth
as eucalyptus bark
essence of yourself,
will be the meaning of your name,
will be what you have always known.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 17, 2018