Becoming After Midnight

I stood where the pattern ends

Still before the turning starts

Empty streets and glowing windows

Half-made plans across my screen

Everybody moves in circles

I was somewhere in between

Out of place but not mistaken

I could feel another frame

Building futures after midnight Trying on a different name If doubt is

here, let it burn clean If I'm alone,

let it mean prepare What looked like distance was a doorway What

felt like silence shaped the air

I step into the name I'm making

Turn the road with my own hands No more waiting for a

signal I redraw where my future stands I move ahead without permission

Clear and quiet, still I run

Not arriving, only becoming And I know what I've begun

From bare rooms and unfinished sketches

I have learned what hunger builds

Piece by piece from almost nothing A shape appears because I will

Not for glory, not for noise For a life I can design

Something honest, something lasting Born from patience and from time What if

this road lives only in my mind What if the map was

never mine to find Then change itself is reason enough And I

can follow what I

become I step into the name I'm making Turn the road with

my own hands No more waiting for a signal I redraw where

my future stands I move ahead with steadier vision Clear and quiet,

still I run

Not arriving, only becoming And the first light has begun

No parade, no borrowed crown

Just the choice, and then the ground