To the Woman Waiting for Me

I know you are there,
somewhere beyond the corner
I cannot yet see around.

Perhaps you look back for me,
wondering why I have not appeared—
afraid that I will lose my courage,
mistake the distance for impossibility,
or become invisible
somewhere between here and you.

But do not worry.

I may stand uncertain,
but I am still standing.
I may not see the road,
but I have not turned away from it.

Every time I choose what is true,
I become a little more visible to you.
Every time I remain beside myself,
I move one step nearer.

I cannot promise
that I will arrive untouched.
I cannot tell you
what I will have carried,
what I will have released,
or how many times
I will have rested along the way.

But I promise
I will not abandon the woman
who is becoming you.

And if you cannot see me yet,
look for the smallest light
moving in the distance.

That is me.

I am still coming.

Perhaps more slowly
than either of us imagined,
perhaps by a road
neither of us would have chosen—
but I am coming.

So rest, my future self.
You do not have to keep watch
for fear that I will never arrive.

Leave the light on
and live peacefully.

I will follow its warmth
around every uncertain corner,
until the ONE who hoped for me
and the ONE who refused to disappear
are finally standing
in the same place.