Free To Be Me

Learning to grow Petunias

~  Free To Be Me ~

When life is joyfully interwoven

with lover, family, friends, we hardly

 notice morphing into one another while

living to please as much as possible

out of mutual love and respect

When suddenly we lose our love

must do life on our own, re-discover 

who we are; find our new identity, learn

if we can fit in what was once familiar

now upside down - forever changed

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I never sought to be free, dear heart,

I loved the life we had — still cherish it

yet slowly, buried bits of me come back

the young girl, a new old me unedited

without love’s checks and balances

free to test the limits of my soul

free to be, free to be — me

JoMae

9/27/21