Learning the After

I thought healing would arrive like

sunrise Sharp and certain

A clean edge between before and

after Like one clear morning

Where the weight would finally loosen

And the static would fall silent

But it was beginning

all along

In the slow reshaping underneath In

the sleepless nights

In the laughter that somehow survived

In the trembling hands still reaching

forward

Even when they feared what they

might find

Rawness leaves the fingerprints behind

Smudged into every becoming Every scar

carrying proof That life was still

unfolding

Beneath the ruin Maybe nothing was

ever truly broken beyond repair Maybe

we were always changing shape Learning

new ways to hold the light

Through cracked glass and uneven edges

The polished things fade clean into

silence

But the weathered things remember

They carry the marks,

the pressure,

the heat The evidence of having

been here at all

And maybe that's what the after

really is Not a finish line,

not a rebirth Not the clean

horizon I kept searching for

Just the quiet understanding

That becoming never stopped

The tide was already turning

Long before I knew to call

it healing

And maybe I was never meant

to arrive

Only to keep arriving

As I stand in the tide

And it shows me where I

stand

I realize

that in the arriving

I have been and become

Who I am truly

meant to be