And now I’ll tell you of the time
when we all took off our crooked glasses
and shook our heads to focus our surprise
and spent some puzzled moments
trying to readjust our eyes
but then admitted
that here and now, as never
in our prior experience,
we could see

— because no longer did we need to fear
what someone else might think of us,
no longer did we need to squint
to weigh each other in the scales,
no longer did we think that judging others
was something we or anyone
was tasked to do

So we were free —
free to move with all the strength
and competence, and sweet compassion
that we always dreamed comprised our being,
free to love, with no fear of rejection,
free to trust our clarity of seeing.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 21, 2019