vert

while I sometimes turn inward

and find a viscous pitch,

tangled voices and doubts bubbling through my mind in the absence of light-

I exhale through my nose, softly pausing

and find a stirring.

the self doubt burgeons into unrealized moments,

potential.

•

like saplings or curled edges of fern fronds yet to shake out and show their breadth,

their unique shape and way of intaking the world

starts as a sheen, a soft dappled green.

•

as I have learned to find the new growth within, under, inside myself-

I have learned to recognize it in others. to embrace, nourish, let flourish-

the most special verdant sheen I possess?

embracing the world around me,

evergreen.