Well, if I don’t tell myself the truth,
who will? And yet this truth
is not the stuff of petty disappointments,
layers of them, self-hidden by my self-image,
the sense I should know better
than to feel this way.

No. This truth must embrace
stepping outside the borders of myself
to look around. Losing sight, thereby,
of any self-sense. Picking up, instead,
kind eyes, eagerly receiving
all of these most interesting beings,
offering acceptance, and coming back around
to be accepted,
in the easy way where none of us is judge.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 11, 2023