The pretensions don’t matter.
All of us may show them –
the defensive or proud propping up
of what we think we should be,
the hapless implications of these constructs
on what we think of others
what we think of ourselves

We don’t need to deal in these things,
don’t need to buy and sell, compare,
determine, tally –
these things do not pertain to us at all –
one glimpse of truth,
and it doesn’t matter
what any of us have been propping up –
we fall like kindling flames
upon the truth of our pure selves

We light up the place,
we warm to what we’ve always longed to share –
nothing we thought we were
has anything to do with it –
we burn, and are reborn.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 3, 2023