In a defiance you couldn’t help,
you threw off the regimens,
the measured judgments, all the ways
you could be counted,
all the things you counted
as what might count or not count
in how you measure up

In a defiance that came of
being much bigger
than those judgments could hold –
infinite, actually  –
you expanded beyond all boundaries,
embodying the humming
of the universe

There’s no parsing of this,
no point in even bringing it
to the counting table.
What you shine back
will not be counted in the old coin,
but everyone will feel its touch.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 8, 2021