The Self I Was

I meet the one I used to be
along the paths I’ve traveled through—
the heart that held its breath too long,
the hands that did what they could do.

I will not ask her why she stayed,
or why the road was hard to see.
She carried me through what she knew
toward who I’m learning now to be.

I offer her the gentleness
I once believed she had to earn.
She was not lost along the way—
she was becoming, turn by turn.