TIME

Like her hair
Those once blue eyes
Are slightly greying now
But gracefully

Now and then
A shadow of remembered pain
Drifts across her face
Like a rain-filled cloud
On a summer's day

The honest lines of life
Etched by courage
Of fear withstood
Trace a fragile, hard won strength
Upon the face of time

A defiant I will know
Shines through her restless eyes
From an ever stubborn soul which cries
I will have a private space
Outside motherhood and wife

A fiercely independent self
Has survived the undermining years
Commanding deep respect
Without misuse of tears

An inner strength is here
Annealed by standing at the void
And facing down the nothingness
The lightness of her youthful days
Worn down by pain and fear
Escapes the bonds of wary doubt
When a fellow sense of fun is near

She is driven to make sense of things
Wherever truth may lead
To accept what her rescued life may bring
And give from love, not self-regarding need

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